Abstract
Claw disorders are among the most relevant health problems in dairy herds. Despite being often not clearly visible and not easily detectable for farmers, they may appear as peculiar cow behavioral and performance patterns. This retrospective study aimed to assess cow's behavior and production variations associated with claw disorders. The study involved 54 lactating Italian Holstein cows reared on the same dairy farm. A veterinarian performed the routine hoof trimming every 6 months, diagnosing specific claw disorders. Multiparous cows with no disorders at the first trimming were selected and monitored for the two following trimming sessions. Data coming from the automatic milking system and neck collars and related to the 15 days before a given cow was diagnosed with claw problems during trimming were further collected. These data were compared with those recorded for the same animal over the 15 days preceding the previous trimming in which no claw disorders were observed. Compared to when they had no disorders, the cows affected by claw disorders had a lower daily activity (405 vs. 429 ± 27.7 units/day, p < 0.001), showing a constant decrease in the last 10 days before the trimming, a lower milk yield (26.5 vs. 28.4 ± 1.57 kg/day, p = 0.03), and only a decreasing trend of rumination time. These patterns of activity, milk yield, and rumination characterizing cows affected by claw disorders should promote the development of specific algorithms that would enable early detection of lameness thanks to the deviations of these parameters that are sensitive to cow claw health.
Highlights
In recent years, lameness and claw disorders have continued to be identified worldwide as severe problems in dairy herds due to their negative impacts on cow welfare and farm economy [1, 2]
Mild changes in gait and limb movements, lying duration, or eating and rumination times that are possibly caused by claw disorders are not clearly visible, and they are not easy for farmers to detect, they require specific devices that could warn them about the onset of a lameness event [4–6]
The widespread use of automatic milking systems (AMS) and associated sensor systems such as collars, pedometers, and accelerometers to assess cow’s heat and activity might allow the routine collection of specific lameness-induced behavioral changes or performance losses. This retrospective study that used productive and behavior data downloaded from storage memories of AMS and neck collars aimed at identifying variations in activity, rumination time, body weight, milk yield, and milking behavior of multiparous Holstein cows over the 2 weeks that preceded the diagnosis of specific claw disorders during the routinely scheduled herd’s hoof trimming
Summary
Lameness and claw disorders have continued to be identified worldwide as severe problems in dairy herds due to their negative impacts on cow welfare and farm economy [1, 2]. The widespread use of AMS and associated sensor systems such as collars, pedometers, and accelerometers to assess cow’s heat and activity might allow the routine collection of specific lameness-induced behavioral changes or performance losses. In this regard, this retrospective study that used productive and behavior data downloaded from storage memories of AMS and neck collars aimed at identifying variations in activity, rumination time, body weight, milk yield, and milking behavior of multiparous Holstein cows over the 2 weeks that preceded the diagnosis of specific claw disorders during the routinely scheduled herd’s hoof trimming
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