Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-lnqnp Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-23T15:25:33.164Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Is Lameness a Welfare Problem in Dairy Farms with Automatic Milking Systems?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 January 2023

I C Klaas ,
T Rousing ,
C Fossing ,
J Hindhede  and
J T Sørensen
I C Klaas*
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Health and Welfare, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
T Rousing
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Health and Welfare, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
C Fossing
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Health and Welfare, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
J Hindhede
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Health and Welfare, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
J T Sørensen
Affiliation:
Department of Animal Health and Welfare, Danish Institute of Agricultural Sciences, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark
*
* Contact for correspondence and requests for reprints: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Lameness, a disease often observed in loose-housed dairy cattle herds, affects animal welfare in general and reduces cow locomotion. As cow traffic may be affected by restricted locomotion, lameness may be a significant problem in herds with automatic milking systems (AMSs). Between January and August 2002, a field study was conducted to evaluate animal health in eight herds with an AMS. Herd sizes ranged from 60 (n = 5 herds with one automatic milking unit [AMU]) to 120 cows (n = 3 herds with two AMUs). Four visits were made, during which 40-50 cows were randomly assigned for clinical examination of body condition, cleanliness, claw length, disorders of claws and legs, lameness, pressure lesions, and disorders of udder and teats. Lameness was observed in 14% of cows, ranging from 5% to 28% between herds. Approximately 60% of cows had pressure lesions on the hock and 23% of cows had overgrown claws. Preliminary results show that overgrown claws, pressure sores with swellings, early stage of lactation, and high milk yield significantly increased the risk of lameness. Lameness significantly reduced the number of voluntary milkings per day.

Keywords

animal welfareautomatic milking systemlamenesswelfare
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Welfare , Volume 12 , Issue 4: Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on the Assessment of Animal Welfare at Farm and Group Level , November 2003 , pp. 599 - 603
Copyright
© 2003 Universities Federation for Animal Welfare

References

Caja, G, Ayadi, M, Conill, C, M'Rad, M B, Albanell, E and Such, X 2000 Effects of milking frequency on milk yield and milk partitioning in the udder of dairy cows. In: Hogeven, H and Meijering, A (eds) Robotic Milking pp 177–178. Wageningen Pers: Wageningen, The NetherlandsGoogle Scholar
Gillund, P, Reksen, O, Gröhn, Y T and Karlberg, K 2001 Body condition related to ketosis and reproductive performance in Norwegian dairy cows. Journal of Dairy Science 84: 1390–1396CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Manske, T, Hultgren, J and Bergsten, C 2002 Prevalence and interrelationships of hoof lesions and lameness in Swedish dairy cows. Preventive Veterinary Medicine 54: 247–263CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Prescott, N B, Mottram, T T and Webster, A J F 1998 Relative motivations of dairy cows to be milked or fed in a Y-maze and an automatic milking machine. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 57: 23–33CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ruegg, P L and Milton, R L 1995 Body condition scores of Holstein cows on Prince Edward Island, Canada: relationships with yield, reproductive performance, and disease. Journal of Dairy Science 78: 522–564CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Van't Land, A, van Lenteren, A C, van Schooten, E, Bouwmans, C, Gravesteyn, D J and Hink, P 2000 Effects of husbandry systems on the efficiency and optimisation of robotic milking performance and management. In: Hogeveen, H and Meijering, A (eds) Robotic Milking: Proceedings of the International Symposium pp 167–176. 17-19 August 2000, Lelystad, The Netherlands. Wageningen Pers: Wageningen, The NetherlandsGoogle Scholar
Whay, H R, Watermann, A E and Webster, A J 1997 Association between locomotion, claw lesions and nociceptive threshold in dairy heifers during the prepartum-period. Veterinary Journal 154(2): 155–161CrossRefGoogle Scholar