With plenty of glutamate in the diet as well, a neural excitotoxic episode at parturition could put a cow's brain down as quickly as indicated in the reports. The similarity in pattern I was referring to is the increased calcium turnover, increased endocrine disruption, and perhaps increased pesticide use, which, in comparison to earlier decades, could accelerate an age related, stress related, genetically predisposed disorder to an epidemic, even without the addition of an infectious vehicle in feed supplements. That is the pattern that I see as similar on U.S. and European dairy farms. While the exact cause of this disease is not completely understood, it is associated with the onset of lactation and failure of the animal to maintain an adequate supply of calcium from both feed intake and mobilization from the bone. Several factors are known to affect the incidence of milk fever in dairy cattle.
Older animals are more susceptible than are young cows.
Milk fever occurs more frequently in Jerseys than in the other dairy breeds. High producing animals are more prone to milk fever than are low producers. Cows with a previous history tend to have repeat cases of milk fever. Dull eyes and action 2. Subnormal body temperature 3.