The aim of this study was to characterize the metabolic status of specialized and dual-purpose dairy cows under lowland tropical dairy systems in Colombia, by evaluating body condition, serum concentrations of metabolites and hormones, in the transition period and up to 105 days post-partum, through multivariate analysis techniques. To understand the joint variation of hormones and metabolites evaluated during the experimental phase, the 21 variables under study (haemoglobin, haematocrit, NEFA, BHB, glucose, cholesterol, triglycerides, urea, protein, albumin, globulin, AST, ALT, GGT, body condition, T3, cortisol, insulin, leptin, prolactin, GH), were analysed from a multivariate approach. A cluster analysis and principal component analysis (PCA) were performed to reduce the dimensionality of the information, and to identify the representative variables to explain the variation in the dat...