Dear Mateo,

I can give you some data about other ketone bodies, such as BHB: 

Subclinical ketosis was defined as a β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) concentration of 1.2 to 2.9 mM/L, and clinical ketosis was defined as ≥3.0 mM/L.

Source: Chapinal N, Carson ME, LeBlanc SJ, Leslie KE, Godden S, Capel M, Santos JE, Overton MW, Duffield TF. The association of serum metabolites in the transition period with milk production and early-lactation reproductive performance. J Dairy Sci. 2012; 95(3):1301-9. doi: 10.3168/jds.2011-4724. (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22365212)

Regards,

Dr. Alfredo J. Escribano.

 Dear Mateo,

  if you look through my publications of the 1990s and those of Paul Dobbelaar and references within them of papers published in the 1990s you will find plenty of work on detecting ketosis by analysis of milk, blood, urine, breath etc.   Also you should look at the papers of Phil Garnsworthy and the PhD thesis of Lorna Masson, 2004 University of Nottingham.

Dear Mateo,

If you want to find the prevalence of subclinical ketosis in dairy cattle, there is a interesting and cheap device that already has been evaluated for that proposes (IWERSEN M., FALKENBERG U., VOIGTSBERGER R., FORDERUNG D., HEUWIESER W. 2009. Evaluation of an electronic cowside test to detect subclinical ketosis in dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci. 92: 2618-2624.), It is a cowside test that measures B-hydroxybutyric acid concentrations (quantitatively) in whole blood and gives you the information in 10 seconds, we have had excelent results using that ketone-meter (Precision Xtra, Optium Xceed or FreeStyle Optium are the names of the device according to the Abbott selling area), I strongly recommend you to read that paper before you start measuring ketone bodies.

Best wishes

Dear Alfredo,

First, I want to thank you for your answer.

I already read that article and it's part of the list of references of my thesis, but I can't measure BHBA because in my city there are no veterinary laboratories to perform this test, so I had to go to a human laboratory that could measure, at least, acetoacetate in urine samples.

Regards.

Dear Toby,

Thank you for your answer. I will read those references and I will try to let you know what I found.

Regards.

Dear Alejandro,

I want to thank you for your answer.

I could not find the test to measure BHBA here in my city, so I had to go to a human laboratory where they measure urine acetoacetate; that's why I have been searching for the normal levels of this ketone.

P.S.: I'm sorry for my english.

Regards.

Dear Mateo,

I now understand why you are searching for such specific values. I hope you find the reference values or have the possibility to send your samples to a different country.

Regards,

Alfredo.