Association between metabolic diseases and the culling risk of high-yielding dairy cows in a transition management facility using survival and decision tree analysis

Abstract

The objective of this study was to assess the association between individual metabolic diseases (MD) and multiple MD (MD+) in the transition period (±3 wk relative to calving) and the culling risk in the first 120 d in milk (DIM) in Holstein-Friesian dairy cows. Health records from a transition management facility in Germany with 1,946 calvings were analyzed in a 1-yr cohort via survival analysis and a decision tree model. The recorded MD were milk fever (MF), retained placenta (RP), metritis (METR), ketosis (KET), displaced abomasum (DA), twinning (TWIN), and clinical mastitis (MAST). The overall culling within 120 DIM was 18%. The 120 DIM culling risk for healthy cows (64.8% of the total) was 13%, whereas it was 25% for MD (24.5%) and 33% for MD+ (10.7%) cows. The 120 DIM culling risk (%) for each MD and MD+, respectively, was 34.6 and 48 for MF and MF+, 15 and 31.5 for RP and RP+, 9.4 and 22.2 for METR and METR+, 30.7 and 37.3 for KET and KET+, 56.1 and 46.8 for DA and DA+, 30.3 and 34 for TWIN and TWIN+, and 36.6 and 27.8 for MAST and MAST+. Moreover, the incidence risk (%) for each MD and MD+, respectively, was 4 and 2.6 for MF and MF+, 1 and 2.8 for RP and RP+, 8.7 and 6 for METR and METR+, 4.5 and 6.1 for KET and KET+, 0.8 and 2.4 for DA and DA+, 1.7 and 2.7 for TWIN and TWIN+, and 3.6 and 1.8 for MAST and MAST+. Setting the healthy cows as the referent, the 120 DIM hazard ratios (HR) for culling were MD 2.1, MD+ 2.9, MF 3.3, MF+ 4.6, RP+ 2.7, METR+ 1.8, KET 2.6, KET+ 3.3, DA 5.5, DA+ 4.5, TWIN 2.8, TWIN+ 3.0, MAST 3.1, and MAST+ 2.3. According to both decision tree and random forest analyses, MF was the most significant disease influencing survival, followed by DA, MAST, METR, and TWIN. In conclusion, the presence of MD or MD+ during the transition period was associated with increased culling risk in the first 120 DIM. The culling hazard was greater when an MD was complicated with another MD. In this study performed in a well-managed large farm, uncomplicated cases of RP (HR = 1.2) and METR (HR = 0.7) did not have an influence on the 120 DIM culling risk. Interestingly, both decision tree and random forest analyses pointed to MF and DA as main culling reasons in the first 120 DIM in the present dairy herd.

Review: Overview of factors affecting productive lifespan of dairy cows

“…Failure to get pregnant can be also related to management factors such as insufficient heat abatement, poor oestrus detection and low body condition score. Cows with twins had higher culling rates (Bicalho et al, 2007;Probo et al, 2018) than cows with singletons. Risk of culling increased for cows that had greater calving difficulty, gave birth to males, were in herds with fewer days to first insemination or had longer days to conception (De .…”

“…The transition period around calving is characterised by the incapacity to meet the energetic demand for milk production, leading to a negative energy balance, and increased risk of ketosis. Ketosis was associated with increased risk of culling in multiparous cows (Seifi et al, 2011;Roberts et al, 2012;Probo et al, 2018). One study found no assocation between ketosis and culling in primiparous cows (Hertl et al, 2011).…”

“…Retained placenta is a condition in which all or part of the placenta remains attached to the uterus within 12 h after parturition. Several studies reported no significant effect of retained placenta on the culling risk (Dubuc et al, 2011;Probo et al, 2018). However, retained placenta was reported as a risk factor for metritis (LeBlanc, 2008), resulting in negative effects on reproductive performance and was therefore indirectly linked to increased culling.…”

“…Roberts et al (2012) and Gröhn et al (1998) observed that cows with milk fever had greater risk to be culled compared to cows not diagnosed with milk fever. Probo et al (2018) demonstrated that milk fever was the most influential disease associated with risk for culling within the first 120 days in milk. This increased cull risk early in lactation was also found by Seifi et al (2011).…”

“…Studies from the 1990s reported that displaced abomasum was the second most important culling reason after reproductive disorders (Seegers et al, 1998). Recently, Probo et al (2018) showed that although displaced abomasum was the disease with the lowest incidence, it was the second most determinant metabolic disease for culling, followed by mastitis and ketosis. Cows with displaced abomasum often had high risks to be culled (Seifi et al, 2011;Cha et al, 2013).…”