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Veterinary Sciences
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Recent Advances in the Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, and Control of Metabolic...
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Recent Advances in the Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, and Control of Metabolic and Immunological Diseases in Cattle

A special issue of Veterinary Sciences (ISSN 2306-7381).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 January 2026 | Viewed by 2038

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Lin Lei

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
Interests: clinical veterinary medicine; animal nutrition and metabolic diseases
Dr. Yuxiang Song

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Clinical Veterinary Medicine, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
Interests: immunity; metabolism; gut microbiota; ruminant health and disease prevention
Prof. Dr. Zipei Fan

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
School of Artificial Intelligence, Jilin University, Changchun 130012, China
Interests: convolutional neural networks; attention mechanism; graph neural networks

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Metabolic and immunological disorders represent major health and productivity constraints in cattle production, posing significant challenges to animal welfare, farm profitability, and the long-term sustainability of livestock systems. In recent years, the adoption of advanced technologies, including precision agriculture and smart farming approaches, has greatly enhanced our capacity for the disease monitoring, early diagnosis, and effective health management of livestock. Emerging tools, including omics technologies, data-driven decision-making, and, to a limited extent, artificial intelligence (AI), offer new possibilities for enhancing the prevention and control of cattle diseases. This Special Issue invites high-quality research contributions that address the diagnosis, pathogenesis, epidemiology, and control of metabolic and immunological disorders in cattle, including, but not limited to, ketosis, fatty liver, hypocalcemia, mastitis, and immune dysfunctions. By advancing knowledge in these areas, and by encouraging innovative yet practical solutions, this Special Issue aims to contribute towards healthier, more resilient, and sustainable cattle production systems.

Dr. Lin Lei
Dr. Yuxiang Song
Prof. Dr. Zipei Fan
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Veterinary Sciences is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2100 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • metabolic diseases
  • immunological disorders
  • cattle health
  • disease diagnosis
  • pathogenesis
  • biomarkers
  • immune response
  • disease control
  • precision livestock farming
  • preventive strategies

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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13 pages, 4878 KB  
Article
SideCow-VSS: A Video Semantic Segmentation Dataset and Benchmark for Intelligent Monitoring of Dairy Cows Health in Smart Ranch Environments
by Lei Yao, Jin Liu, Weinan Hong, Fanrong Kong, Zipei Fan, Lin Lei and Xinwei Li
Vet. Sci. 2025, 12(11), 1104; https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci12111104 - 19 Nov 2025
Viewed by 452
Abstract
Accurate and non-invasive monitoring of dairy cows is a cornerstone of precision livestock farming, paving the way for proactive health management and earlier disease detection. The development of robust, AI-driven diagnostic tools, however, is hindered by a dual challenge: scarce realistic video datasets [...] Read more.
Accurate and non-invasive monitoring of dairy cows is a cornerstone of precision livestock farming, paving the way for proactive health management and earlier disease detection. The development of robust, AI-driven diagnostic tools, however, is hindered by a dual challenge: scarce realistic video datasets and a lack of standardized benchmarks for deep learning models. To confront these issues, this study puts forward SideCow-VSS, a video semantic segmentation dataset comprising 921 side-view clips with dense, pixel-level annotations of dairy cows under variable on-farm conditions. We systematically evaluated eight deep learning architectures, from classic convolutional neural networks to state-of-the-art Transformers. The evaluation highlighted a clear performance trade-off: the Mask2Former model with a Swin-L backbone yielded the highest mIoU at 97.32%, making it well-suited for detailed morphological analysis. In contrast, the lightweight PIDNet-s model achieved the fastest inference speed of 59.5 FPS, demonstrating its potential for real-time behavioral alerting systems. This work delivers a foundational resource and quantitative framework to inform model selection, accelerating the creation of computer vision systems for automated health monitoring and adopting preventive strategies against key metabolic and immunological disorders in dairy production. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in the Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, and Control of Metabolic and Immunological Diseases in Cattle)
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Review

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20 pages, 1640 KB  
Review
Choline as a Modulator of Periparturient Diseases in Dairy Cows
by Fenghong Wang, Yuanyin Guo, Xiu Su and Jie Cao
Vet. Sci. 2025, 12(10), 1016; https://doi.org/10.3390/vetsci12101016 - 21 Oct 2025
Viewed by 1094
Abstract
Dairy cows experiencing negative energy balance (NEB) are prone to metabolic and inflammatory disorders, including ketosis, fatty liver, mastitis, endometritis, and hypocalcemia, which impair productive and reproductive performance. NEB elevates non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA), leading to disrupted lipid metabolism characterized [...] Read more.
Dairy cows experiencing negative energy balance (NEB) are prone to metabolic and inflammatory disorders, including ketosis, fatty liver, mastitis, endometritis, and hypocalcemia, which impair productive and reproductive performance. NEB elevates non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) and β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA), leading to disrupted lipid metabolism characterized by increased fatty acid synthesis (via SREBP-1c, ACC, FASN), impaired lipid export (downregulated MTTP, ApoB100, ACAT2), and reduced oxidation (suppressed SIRT1–PPARα–CPT1A/2 pathway), resulting in triacylglycerol (TAG) accumulation and ketosis. Excess reactive oxygen species (ROS) trigger oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress and apoptosis through JNK, p53/Nrf2, and PERK–eIF2α signaling, while HIF-2α–mediated hypoxia aggravates hepatic damage. Elevated NEFA/BHBA impair polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) chemotaxis and phagocytosis, promoting mastitis and endometritis, and hypocalcemia further weakens immune defense. Rumen-protected choline (RPC) improves lipid metabolism by enhancing VLDL assembly and TAG export (upregulating MTTP, ApoB100, ATG3; inhibiting SREBF1, DGAT2), stimulating fatty acid oxidation (activating AMPK–PPARα–CPT1α), and reducing oxidative stress (suppressing ROS–ERN1). Moreover, RPC decreases IL-6 and TNF-α levels and enhances antioxidant capacity and PMN function. Overall, RPC alleviates NEB-induced metabolic and inflammatory diseases, supporting its inclusion in periparturient management to mitigate NEB and associated disorders. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Recent Advances in the Diagnosis, Pathogenesis, and Control of Metabolic and Immunological Diseases in Cattle)
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