Metabolic diseases including milk fever, ketosis, and grass staggers cause significant acute suffering in dairy cattle; targeted prevention through nutrition management is both welfare-effective and commercially beneficial.
Metabolic diseases cluster around calving and early lactation because this is when the physiological demands of dairy production are greatest and nutritional management most critical. The conditions are painful — milk fever causes distressing muscle weakness and recumbency; grass staggers causes tetany and convulsions. Both are substantially preventable through targeted nutritional management and supplementation. The commercial cost of metabolic disease treatment provides aligned incentives for prevention that welfare advocates can leverage in promoting improved management.