Footrot is a debilitating and contagious disease in dairy cows, caused by the
Gram-negative anaerobe Dichelobacter nodosus. 1H-NMR (nuclear
magnetic resonance)-based metabolomics has been previously used to understand the
pathology and etiology of several diseases. The objective of this study was to
characterize serum from dairy cows with footrot (n=10) using 1H-NMR-based
metabolomics and chemometric analyses. 1H-NMR spectroscopy with multivariate
pattern recognition (principal component analysis and orthogonal partial least-squares
discriminant analysis) was performed to identify biomarkers in cows with footrot (F) and
healthy controls (C). 1H-NMR analysis facilitated the identification of 21
metabolites. Among these metabolites, 4 metabolites were higher and 17 metabolites were
lower in the F group than in the C group. The serum levels of 5 metabolites were
significantly different (P<0.05) between the two groups. The results
revealed that cows with footrot have altered carbohydrate, amino acid, lipid and energy
metabolic pathways. Metabolomic approaches are a clinically useful diagnostic tool for
understanding the biochemical alterations and mechanisms of several diseases.