Acute phase proteins in relation to various inflammatory diseases of calves

The aim of the present study was to further evaluate the concentrations of major acute phase proteins in calves with respiratory diseases and to determine the influence of other commonly occuring diseases on the concentrations of these inflammatory proteins in calves. Into the evaluation we included 69 sick calves with clinical signs of various inflammatory diseases such as respiratory diseases (n=46), diarrhoea (n=10), omphalophlebitis (n=5) and multisystemic diseases (n=8). The calves were of a Slovak spotted breed, lowland black spotted breed or their crossbreeds at the age from 2 weeks to 6 months. Blood for the investigations was taken once, when the clinical signs of the diseases were obvious. Blood samples were analysed for haptoglobin, serum amyloid A and fibrinogen. The results obtained in sick animals were compared with those in 28 clinically healthy calves. In calves suffering from respiratory diseases, we found significantly higher concentrations of haptoglobin (P<0.001), serum amyloid A (P< 0.001) as well as fibrinogen (P<0.001) than in clinically healthy calves. Insignificantly higher concentrations of serum amyloid A were obtained also in calves with signs of diarrhoea and omphalophlebitis, while the values of haptoglobin and fibrinogen were not markedly different from those measured in healthy animals. An opposite trend was observed in calves affected by multisystemic diseases with non-significantly higher concentrations of haptoglobin and fibrinogen. Thus, the presented data showed increased production of evaluated acute phase proteins in calves with respiratory diseases, and indicated that other diseases in calves, e.g. diarrhoea and omphalophlebitis, as well as multisystemic diseases, although in a less extent, may also induce an acute phase response.