Lame cows on Australian dairy farms: A comparison of farmer-identified lameness and formal lameness scoring, and the position of lame cows within the milking order.
J Dairy Sci
; 102(2): 1522-1529, 2019 Feb.
Article
en En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-30594372
ABSTRACT
On Australian pasture-based farms, where cows may often walk several kilometers and stand for several hours per day in a crowded concrete yard while they wait to be milked, the potential for lameness to negatively affect animal welfare is of ongoing concern. Several studies have shown that farmers tend to underestimate the incidence of lameness. Further, improving farmer diagnosis/identification of lameness is likely to result in more prompt treatment, which in turn will improve clinical and animal welfare outcomes. We scored 19,154 cows over 50 farms for lameness, in herd groups ranging from approximately 100 to 1,000 cows, as they left the milking parlor. We compared these results with farmer-diagnosed lameness records on the same day. We used a scoring system of 0, walks normally; 1, walks unevenly; 2, lame; and 3, very lame. All very lame cows had been detected by the farmer, but overall, farmers detected only 24% of cows identified by lameness scoring. An analysis of the position of lame cows within the milking order showed that lameness scoring of the entire herd was necessary to detect all the lame cows as only 60% of lame cows appeared in the last 30% of cows to be milked. However, lameness scoring only the last 200 cows to be milked could be used as a screening test to identify herds with a lameness prevalence below a given threshold.
Palabras clave
Texto completo:
1
Colección:
01-internacional
Banco de datos:
MEDLINE
Asunto principal:
Enfermedades de los Bovinos
/
Industria Lechera
/
Cojera Animal
Tipo de estudio:
Diagnostic_studies
/
Incidence_studies
/
Prevalence_studies
/
Prognostic_studies
/
Risk_factors_studies
Límite:
Animals
País/Región como asunto:
Oceania
Idioma:
En
Revista:
J Dairy Sci
Año:
2019
Tipo del documento:
Article