Maturity of suckler calves and dairy calves at the second and third week of postnatal age and forms of reaction of the animals to transport by road

Suckler calves (SK) fi om the mother cow herd and dairy calves (TK) were ex posed to transport stress at the second and third week of postnatal age. Lo ng lasting measurements by way of heart rate recording, body temperature an d body weight and blood sampling before and just after finishing transport and in the morning of the next day as well were used assessing reaction pat terns of calves with different development quality. Venous blood samples we re analyzed for acid base balance, gas content, hemoglobin derivatives and hemoglobin variants, protein, metabolites, minerals, noradrenaline, adrenal ine, thyroid hormones and cortisol. According to the hemoglobin content of blood animals were allocated into the following groups: Hb<9 g/dl, Hb 9,1-1 1,5 g/dl and Hb>11,5 g/dl. Before and just after transport and at the follo wing day between group differences existed for Hb, Hk, O2CONT, O(2)CAP, COH b, MetHb, Fe. Loss of body weight and increase of body temperature, heart r ate and plasma cortisol concentration could be found in all groups. Increas es of Hb occured in SK and those of noradrenaline concentration in the grou p Hb<9 and in the group Hb>11,5 from SK. T4 and FT4 concentration were high er after transport and at the following day in all groups of TK and in the group Hb<9 of SK. Changes of noradrenaline concentration after transport ha d a strong relationship with the before transport starting values in all gr oups of TK. Significant correlations could be found for total protein, albu min, T4, FT4, T3, FT3 and Hb between sampling points before and after trans port meaning there was high individual specificity of these measures. Body temperature, heart rate and the concentrations of total protein, P, adrenal ine, T4, FT4 and FT3 were higher and in most cases concentrations of plasma cortisol and lactate were lower in SK than in TK. During transport heart r ate variation of dairy calves was more pronounced comparing that one of suc kler calves.