Can milk be a animal health indicator?

A group of Dutch researchers have started a project to collect milk samples to find out if the milk from fresh cows can tell us more about the metabolic status and longevity of the animal. The research is done by Wageningen Livestock Research in the Netherlands, in collaboration with Delta Instruments. The researchers want to know if the mid-infrared (MIR) profile of the milk of cows, at the start of lactation, can be used as an indicator of the metabolic status, and be used as a predictor for l