THE LIPIDS CONTENT IN BLOOD AND LIVER OF DAIRY COWS DURING THE TRANSITIONAL PERIOD

The objective of the present investigation was to determine the correlation in the blood concentrations of lipids and content in the liver in dairy cows (n=40) in transitional period. The cows were divided into four groups: the first group included late pregnant cows (n=10) from the 10^th to 4^th day before calving, the second group included late pregnant cows (n=10) from the 4^th to 1^th day before calving, the third group included puerperal healthy cows (n=10) whereas the fourth group included puerperal ketotic cows (n=10). Samples of liver and blood tissues were taken from all cows. Pathohistological examination of liver samples showed statistically significant higher lipid infiltration (P<0,01) in ketotic cows compared to healthy cows. Biochemical examination of blood serum showed significantly higher values (P<0,01) of free fatty acids in ketotic cows such as significantly lower concentrations of glucose (P<0,01), triacylglycerols (P<0,01) and total cholesterol (P<0,05) compared to the groups of healthy cows. Significant increase of the concentrations of free fatty acids, such as positive correlation ( r=0.51, P <0.05) between the free fatty acids in the blood and the content of lipids in liver in ketotic cows compared to healthy ones, suggests that during intensive lipomobilization newly synthetized triacylglycerols accumulated in the hepatocytes.