Eicher et al. (1999) presumed the collection of 2 samples
(morning and afternoon) to be more informative
regarding the metabolic status of a herd. Sensitivity
and specificity of repeated measurements after different
time intervals to diagnose SCK (Table 1), however,
increased only slightly compared with a single measurement
at a random time of the day. Hence, from our
data, the preferred sampling interval can be chosen. As
these improvements are practically negligible, we feel
that test characteristics of a single measurement are
sufficient for on-farm situations.