Page 49 - BCHNews-122023-Web

CHRISTMAS 2023  WC DAIRY NEWS 49
Behavioral Changes associated with early
identification of disease in dairy cows
Wali Sahar, Dairy Inspector,
BC Ministry of Agriculture and Food
In my Ph. D. research in UBC’s Animal
Welfare program, I described the
defense, avoidance) with transition period disease. However, this work has been done primarily with cows housed in research-based facilities which arguably are managed differently than commercial farms. My work provides the first evidence that this previous research is generalizable, at least in relation to the conditions and management practices on the commercial farms where I did my work. My work contributed to the broader literature by validating previously recognized associations and by providing new information on the use of cow-level behaviours. These behaviours can be successfully included in predictive models to identify cows at higher risk of becoming sick before they show clinical symptoms of disease as shown in figure 1.
Figure 1. These Kolmogorov Smirnov (KS) graphs for multiparous cows show the cumulative percentage of both sick1 (blue line) and healthy2 (red line) animals within each decile. The yellow line represents the associated KS statistic (calculated as the difference between the cumulative percentages).
1Cows that became sick with at least one disease (ketosis, metritis or mastitis) during the postpartum period.
2Cows that did not develop ketosis, metritis, or mastitis during the postpartum period.
Similarly, lameness continues to be a challenge on dairy farms despite decades of research. The heavy reliance on cross- sectional studies has likely contributed
to our failure to move the field forward because they provide little information on individual cases of lameness. Longitudinal studies are the only means through which information on individual lameness trajectories can be collected. Therefore, one of the central goals of my thesis was to expand the available knowledge about
association between cow behaviours and
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common diseases, using data collected on
commercial dairy farms. I also described
the high incidence of lameness in lactating
lameness in dairy cattle using longitudinal data collection. The data in my thesis indicates that lameness rates in dairy cattle herds are likely much higher than in previous reports generated through cross- sectional work. My work also indicated that the longer a cow remains lame, the higher the probability that she will remain lame during the next consecutive week. This was also shown to be exacerbated by the cows’ age.
dairy cows using data collected over a
10-month period, and showed how models
Dairy
using feeding and agonistic behaviour
can help identify cows at higher risk of
becoming sick or lame.
Despite decades of research, transition
period disease and lameness are still a
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challenge on many dairy farms, often at
unacceptably high levels. The gold standard
for diagnosing transition period diseases is
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the presence of clinical symptoms, but by
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the time these are evident (and identified),
One way to reduce lameness is timely
the disease has often progressed to a more
identification and treatment; however,
severe stage and treatment may not be
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effective. This is likely contributing to the
identifying lame cows, particularly at an
dairy industry’s challenge with reducing
early stage, is difficult. Manual assessment
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of lameness is time-consuming and
the prevalence of transition cow disease
expensive, calling for increased efforts
over the last 3-4 decades, despite the many
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studies focused on this topic. Thus, there is a need for the development of methods and tools to help detect these diseases at the earliest stage possible.
to develop automated tools. My work
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One method to achieve early detection of transition period diseases is automatically monitoring behaviour of cattle. Previous research conducted in research-based
predict and identify cows that are in early
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of predictive models for lameness using
facilities and in my own work has shown
these behaviors is promising and could assist in detecting cows in early stages of lameness, without the need for visual gait assessment.
an association between feeding and agonistic behaviours (aggression,
focused on the changes in a cow’s feeding and agonistic behaviour, as well as milk production, and when these factors are
monitored, they can be used to successfully
stages of lameness. The development
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