# Association of Stress and Inflammatory Diseases with Serum Ferritin and Iron Concentrations in Neonatal Calves

## TL;DR

This study explores how stress and inflammation affect iron levels in newborn calves and finds that cortisol is higher in sick calves.

## Contribution

The study provides new insights into the relationship between stress, inflammation, and iron metabolism in neonatal calves.

## Key findings

- Cortisol levels were higher in diseased calves compared to healthy ones.
- Ferritin showed weak positive correlations with IL1β and IL6.
- Iron supplementation, disease status, and sex did not significantly affect most measured parameters.

## Abstract

Iron metabolism in organisms is influenced by various factors, including nutrition, inflammatory diseases, and immune status. Neonatal calves can develop iron deficiency anemia and inflammatory conditions, such as diarrhea and omphalitis. Iron supplementation is commonly administered within the first days of life to prevent anemia. However, the relationship between serum iron and ferritin concentrations and inflammatory markers depending on iron supplementation and health status in early life remains poorly understood. Therefore, we investigated stress- and inflammation-associated parameters, including cortisol, white blood cell count, total protein, lactate, interleukin 1β, interleukin 6, substance P, hepcidin, haptoglobin, and the ferric-reducing ability of plasma, in neonatal calves over the first 10 days of life in relation to serum iron and ferritin concentrations. Additionally, we examined the effects of iron supplementation, inflammatory diseases, and potential sex-associated differences on the aforementioned parameters.

This study investigated the effects of iron supplementation and inflammatory disease on cortisol, white blood cell (WBC) count, total protein (TP), lactate, interleukin 1 β (IL1β), interleukin 6 (IL6), substance P (SP), hepcidin, haptoglobin, and ferric-reducing ability of plasma (FRAP) in calves. Correlation analyses for the aforementioned parameters with serum iron and ferritin were performed in 40 neonatal calves over the first 10 days of life. Neither iron supplementation, disease status, nor sex had statistically significant effects on the areas under the curve of ferritin, WBC, TP, IL1β, IL6, SP, hepcidin, haptoglobin, or FRAP. However, cortisol concentrations were influenced by disease development. Cortisol concentrations were higher at birth (44.1 ± 1.95 ng/mL) than on day 2 (38.8 ± 1.87 ng/mL) (p = 0.0477), and healthy animals exhibited lower cortisol concentrations than diseased calves (p = 0.0028). Correlation analyses indicated weak positive correlations between ferritin and IL1β (p = 0.0015; ρ = 0.49) and IL6 (p = 0.0011; ρ = 0.50), respectively. The clinical significance of these findings and resulting therapeutic consequences, especially with respect to iron supplementation, should be further investigated in calves and adult cattle.