Investigation of gastrointestinal motility markers in calves with enteritis

In this study, it was aimed to determine the levels of ghrelin and motilin in calves with enteritis and the relationship with clinical score parameters, infectious agents, severity of acidemia, lactate and electrolyte levels. Diarrhea of calves which is the most serious problem of neonatal diseases poses a serious problem for cattle breeding. The regulation of gastrointestinal motility in cattle has not been fully explained yet, but some hormones such as ghrelin and motilin have been reported to play a role in chemical control of the motility. In calf diarrhea, there are no studies about the changes of hormones involved in gastrointestinal motility and their relationship with other pathological changes. Therefore, this study investigating the changes of ghrelin and motilin hormones in calves with enteritis was designed. The material of this study consisted of 70 calves (31 simental, 39 holsteins), 20 healthy, 50 with enteritis (conforming to the diarrhea score table and applying rapid fecal immunochromatographic test) between the ages of 1-20 days. Calves were grouped according to their acidemia levels by clinical examination and scoring. Blood samples were taken from the jugular vein before the treatment of the animals 2 hours after the last feeding. Blood samples were used to establish hemogram, blood gas, biochemistry parameters and ghrelin and motilin levels, using bovine specific ELISA. When ghrelin and motilin hormone levels were compared between in control and experimental groups; it was determined that the ghrelin levels of severe metabolic acidosis group were significantly higher (p <0.01) than the control group (p <0.05) and calves without metabolic acidosis group. Motilin levels of severe metabolic acidosis group was found to be significantly lower (p <0.05) compared to other groups with enteritis. It was found that ghrelin and motilin levels of all calves with enteritis were higher than the control group, but that difference was not statistically significant. In conclusion, it was observed that the clinical findings due to diarrhea and the worsening of fluid-electrolyte disorders in calves significantly affected the level of ghrelin and motilin. It has been demonstrated that ghrelin and motilin can be effective hormones in the regulation of gastrointestinal motility in calves with diarrhea. It was determined that there is a need for experimental studies in which environmental variables can be controlled.