Usefulness of metabolic profiling in the assessment of the flock's health status and productive performance

Production diseases are established when there is an intense imbalance between what is offered to the animal(as food) and what is required (in the form of milk/meat/offspring). In such situations,the solution involves not only the assessment of animal ration or the health program, but also, their health status. This information can only be accessed by performing blood tests, measuring a series of specific metabolites and enzymatic activities, and interpreting them in the scenario in which the animals are, which is known as clinical biochemistry. The aim of this paper is to address the information we get through the measurement of the different profiles, with special emphasis on the metabolic ones; when to do it, and when not to, what precautions should be taken so that blood collected by venipuncture can be reliable for further analysis and interpretation.