Métodos de diagnóstico na avaliação pulmonar de bezerros

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the application of diagnostic methods in the assessment of pulmonary health in cattle. Thirty - nine calves of the crossbreed Hosten x Gir (1/2H to 31 / 32H), evaluated from three to 60 days of life, were evaluated through daily physical examination, with evaluation of heart rate, respiratory rate, rectal temperature and fecal score. At seven pre-established times at 3-5, 10-12, 17-18, 24-25, 31-34, 45-46 and 59-60 days of life, or in any period of the experiment, that the animal presented of pneumonia in the daily clinical examination in addition to the daily physical examination, techniques of evaluation of Pulmonary Auscultation, WI Score, CA Score, Thoracic Radiography, Pulmonary Ultrasonography and blood collection for laboratory evaluation were performed. When evaluating the combined results of the five techniques employed, 79.49% (31/39) of the animals were positive in at least one evaluation in any of the 5 techniques and 25.65% (10/39) of the animals were treated at least once for pneumonia during the study. . There were 237 evaluations, of which 23.63% were positive for Thoracic Radiography, 16.48% for Pulmonary Ultrasonography, 9.70% for Pulmonary Auscultation, 12.22% for CA Score and 11.82% for WI Score. In the analysis of agreement between the techniques, there was a moderate agreement between the techniques of Thoracic Radiography and Pulmonary Ultrasonography (k = 0.507) and between Auscultation and WI Score (k = 0.583) and CA (k = 0.482), and substantial among two methods of score (k = 0.661). Considering Thoracic Radiography as the standard for the diagnosis of pulmonary disease, the sensitivity of the Pulmonary Ultrasonography examination was 52%, 25% at auscultation, 25% at WI Score and 18% at CA Score. In the evaluations to Pulmonary Ultrasonography, 40 evaluations showed pulmonary areas with consolidations larger than 1cm. The sensitivities of the other techniques to detect these lesions were 73% for Thoracic Radiography, 30% for Pulmonary Auscultation and 33% for WI and CA Scores. The risk factors present for respiratory disease were diarrhea, onfalitis, transport stress, the presence of aerosols and the caloric stress. The presence of asymptomatic calves with pulmonary changes in the image reduced the agreement and the sensitivity of the clinical methods in relation to those of the image. The Interstitial Pattern of Thoracic Radiography was responsible for reducing the correspondence with Pulmonary Ultrasonography, however, it presented a high rate of spontaneous recovery. The daily rectal temperature, although not specific, was an important auxiliary in the assessment of the pulmonary health of calves, and this was shown to be elevated three days before the diagnosis of a clinical case. In the diagnosis of pulmonary disease, all the techniques used in the study were useful, however, the particularities of the lesions and of each diagnostic technique interfered in the diagnosis of pulmonary disease.