Assessing cow health condition by using the recent Cowdition Smartphone App and its correlation with vital clinical parameters

Highly productive milk cows suffer from increasing loss in body condition at early lactation, and are more prone to metabolic disorders. Recent Cowdition smartphone application has the ability to determine animal health situation and it is called body condition scoring (BCS) system. It can apply adequately for proper farming and management the animal performance. BCS is also helping to assure that all stages of annual cow cycle are in a good condition. Consequently, appropriate dietary changes can be done to prevent any deficiencies and metabolic diseases. Routinely, rectal body temperature and pulsation and respiratory rates are measured as suitable vital indicators for evaluation the health of the animals and recognize the clinical abnormalities. Therefore, this study intends to correlate between the animal body condition and vital physiological parameters measurements to assess cow health. A total of 30 cows at different stages of the reproduction period, raised at different farms location in Al Muthanna Governorate/ Iraq was nominated animal material of the present study. For each cow, Bayer smartphone Application/ BCS Cowdition was used to measure the body condition, and at the same time, body temperature and pulse and respiratory rates were also measured. Scores that collected from the Cowdition application system were compared with physiological vital indicators parameters. The overall means of BCS were found as 3.9 ± 0.068 and range from 2.5 to 5 for minimum and maximum values respectively. Moreover, 63.33 % (19 out of 30) cows showed the standard BCS ranged between 3.25-3.75 and revealed typical vital clinical parameters. Also, 30% (9 out of 30) cows showed fat BCS values ranged between 4- 4.25 accompanied with variation in the vital clinical parameters that increase with high BCS values. Only 6.66% (2 out of 30) cows showed extremist BCS values which were 2.5 and 5 for poor (emaciated) and grossly fat cow respectively. Moreover, these cows showed also variations in the vital clinical parameters. In conclusion, this study represented for the first time in Iraq the adoption of smartphone BCS Cowdition system to evaluate the animal health. Besides, to understand the relationship between BCS and physiological vital clinical parameters values (body temperature, pulse and respiratory rates), to evaluate and assess the cow body health that helps in the improving of animal nutrition and avoid the metabolic diseases that commonly occur in the highly productive cow. The authors recommend another future study that uses BCS Cowdition Smartphone Appication and correlates it with the animal’s metabolic diseases

Impact of Smokeless Tobacco on the Color Stability of Zirconia, Zirconia-Reinforced Lithium Silicate and Feldspathic CAD/CAM Restorative Materials: An In Vitro Study

WHO estimates that the global number of tobacco users exceeds 1.3 billion people. Few studies have examined the effect of locally made smokeless tobacco (ST) products on the color changes of material used in dental prosthetics. Bearing the recent advances in CAD/CAM ceramic restorations material in mind, this study aimed to assess ST influence on mean color change (∆E*) values among selected CAD/CAM ceramic types: multilayer zirconia (Ceramill Zolid PS), zirconia-reinforced lithium silicate ceramic (Vita Suprinity), and feldspathic (Vita TriLuxe) restorative materials. The color changes of the ceramics were compared to VITA classical and VITA 3D-MASTER shade guides. Sixty CAD/CAM ceramic specimens (20 samples each) were fabricated from Ceramill Zolid PS, Vita TriLuxe Forte, and VITA Suprinity. Specimens were prepared and divided into two groups according to the ST type and immersed for two weeks. Basic VITA classical and VITA 3D-MASTER colors were recorded at a baseline of one week and two weeks. The highest ∆E* values were recorded in the black ST for Vita Suprinity (4.77) in the first week, followed by Vita TriLuxe (4.07) in the second week. For white ST, Vita TriLuxe (4.87), and Vita Suprinity (4.42) showed extensive color change after two weeks and one week, respectively. The color change was least in zirconia for black and white ST after one week. CAD/CAM ceramic materials showed no significant difference after 1 and 2 weeks for the tested ST types. The effects of ST on CAD/CAM ceramic material (∆E* values) were high but did not reach clinically unacceptable values. Zirconia showed the least amount of color change among all the tested materials