Ketosis — a metabolic disorder caused by negative energy balance in early lactation dairy cows — is one of the most prevalent welfare and production challenges in dairy farming, causing weakness, reduced appetite, and in severe cases neurological symptoms that significantly impair cow welfare.
Ketosis is partly a product of the same genetic selection pressure for milk yield that defines modern dairy production — cows are bred to produce milk at volumes that sometimes exceed their metabolic capacity to sustain it without deficit. The suffering of clinical ketosis ranges from the mild (reduced appetite, lethargy) to the severe (nervous ketosis with neurological disturbance). More concerning from a welfare perspective is the high prevalence of subclinical ketosis, where cows experience ongoing metabolic stress without obvious symptoms that would trigger treatment. Good ketosis management requires systematic fresh-cow monitoring, appropriate dry-period nutrition, and willingness to adjust genetic selection pressure away from extreme milk yield when metabolic health is compromised.