Grad Student Competition
Determining relationships between abnormal heart scores and gross pulmonary pathology in feedyard cattle
| Date/Time: |
9/12/2025
09:15
|
| Author: |
Laura C Carpenter |
| Clinic: |
Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine |
| City, State, ZIP: |
Manhattan, KS 66502 |
L.C. Carpenter, BS
1
;
T. Gunderson, DVM, MS
1
;
R. Larson, DVM, PhD
1
;
B. White, DVM, MS
1
;
L. Feitoza, DVM, PhD
1
;
1Beef Cattle Institute, Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine, Manhattan, KS, 66506
Introduction:
Congestive heart failure and bovine respiratory disease are important feedyard cattle mortality causes, but little research has evaluated associations between these cardiopulmonary diseases. The study objective was to compare heart scores with gross pulmonary diagnoses.
Materials and methods:
Across 8 feedyards, 925 necropsies were performed in 2023 and 2024. Heart scores (1-5) were assigned to evaluate for right-sided cardiac remodeling, with scores of 1, 2, or 3 classified as normal heart scores (NHS), and scores of 4 or 5 as abnormal heart scores (AHS). Gross pulmonary diagnoses, confirmed by a veterinarian, included normal (WNL), bronchopneumonia (BP), bronchopneumonia with interstitial pneumonia (BIP), and acute interstitial pneumonia (AIP). Feedyards provided production data. A generalized linear mixed model was iteratively developed modeling the probability of AHS including explanatory variables significantly (P<0.05) associated with the outcome.
Results:
The final model included 817 mortalities and two significant explanatory variables: gross pulmonary diagnosis and days from terminal shipping (DFS). Mortalities with AIP had a greater average probability of an AHS (33%±6.5%), compared to BP (16%±2.3%) and WNL (7%±2.5%). Mortalities with BIP had a greater AHS average probability (21%±3%) than WNL, but did not differ from AIP or BP. Mortalities with ≤50 DFS had a higher AHS average probability (30%±3.1%) than those with >50 DFS (9%±1.9%).
Significance:
This study indicates the probability of an AHS varies with pulmonary pathology and suggests AIP and BIP are associated with cardiac remodeling in feedyard mortalities. Mortalities occurring closer to terminal shipping had higher probability of AHS compared to mortalities earlier in the feeding phase.
