Impact of lameness on gait characteristics and lying behaviour of zero grazed dairy cattle in early lactation

Blackie, Nicola; Bleach, E.C.L.; Amory, Jonathan; Scaife, Jes

doi:10.1016/j.applanim.2010.10.006

Cited by 32 publications

(34 citation statements)

References 50 publications

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“…We found that the lying duration of non-lame cows (LS1) was 684 min/day, which increased by 40 min/day in lame cows (LS4). This increase confirms the results of others that (severely) lame cows have longer daily lying duration than normal to Thorup, Munksgaard, Robert, Erhard, Thomsen and Friggens moderately lame cows (Ito et al, 2010;Blackie et al, 2011;Thomsen et al, 2012). In addition, the decrease in walking duration from 39.4 min/day in healthy cows to 33.4 min/day in lame cows is in agreement with the literature (Walker et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…However, they found that total acceleration measured at the leg while walking was a good proxy for speed (Chapinal et al, 2011). Other studies have shown that lame cows walk more slowly than healthy cows (Telezhenko and Bergsten, 2005;Blackie et al, 2011). Considering this, our results and those of Chapinal et al (2011) seem to suggest that MI walking calculated from leg-mounted accelerometers may be a good lameness indicator.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

“…Previous studies have reported, that lameness affects cow behaviour: lame cows may lie down longer around feeding (Yunta et al, 2012), have longer daily lying-time (Blackie et al, 2011), longer lying bouts (Thomsen et al, 2012) and take fewer steps/day (de Mol et al, 2013). In addition, using data from automated feed stations, lameness has been found to decrease feeding time (Gonzàlez et al, 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lameness detection via leg-mounted accelerometers on dairy cows on four commercial farms

Thorup

Munksgaard

Robert

et al. 2015

Animal

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Lameness in dairy herds is traditionally detected by visual inspection, which is time-consuming and subjective. Compared with healthy cows, lame cows often spend longer time lying down, walk less and change behaviour around feeding time.Accelerometers measuring cow leg activity may assist farmers in detecting lame cows. On four commercial farms, accelerometer data were derived from hind leg-mounted accelerometers on 348 Holstein cows, 53 of them during two lactations. The cows were milked twice daily and had no access to pasture. During a lactation, locomotion score (LS) was assessed on average 2.4 times (s.d. 1.3). Based on daily lying duration, standing duration, walking duration, total number of steps, step frequency, motion index (MI, i.e. total acceleration) for lying, standing and walking, eight accelerometer means and their corresponding coefficient of variation (CV) were calculated for each week immediately before an LS. A principal component analysis was performed to evaluate the relationship between the variables. The effects of LS and farm on the principal components (PC) and on the variables were analysed in a mixed model. The first four PC accounted for 27%, 18%, 12% and 10% of the total variation, respectively. PC1 corresponded to Activity variability due to heavy loading by five CV variables related to standing and walking. PC2 corresponded to Activity level due to heavy loading by MI walking, MI standing and walking duration. PC3 corresponded to Recumbency due to heavy loading by four variables related to lying. PC4 corresponded mainly to Stepping due to heavy loading by step frequency. Activity variability at LS4 was significantly higher than at the lower LS levels. Activity level was significantly higher at LS1 than at LS2, which was significantly higher than at LS4. Recumbency was unaffected by LS. Stepping at LS1 and LS2 was significantly higher than at LS3 and LS4. Activity level was significantly lower on farm 3 compared with farms 1 and 2. Stepping was significantly lower on farms 1 and 3 compared with farms 2 and 4. MI standing indicated increased restlessness while standing when cows increased from LS3 to LS4. Lying duration was only increased in lame cows. In conclusion, Activity level differed already between LS1 and LS2, thus detecting early signs of lameness, particularly through contributions from walking duration and MI walking. Lameness detection models including walking duration, MI walking and MI standing seem worthy of further investigation.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 57%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Lameness detection via leg-mounted accelerometers on dairy cows on four commercial farms

Thorup

Munksgaard

Robert

et al. 2015

Animal

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“…This is consistent with the observation that cows affected with lameness spent less time standing, walking and expressing oestrus behaviour and spent more time lying down (Walker et al, 2008). Chapinal et al (2009) observed that cows affected with sole ulcer spent one more hour a day in the lying position than sound cows, whereas Blackie et al (2011) reported that lame cows spent two more hours per day in the lying position than non-lame cows. The longer lying time could be explained as an attempt to alleviate pain in the feet (Blackie et al, 2011).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 79%

“…A modification of the stride length is one of the signs often used to evaluate lameness in dairy cows (Blackie et al, 2011). In the present study, kinematic analysis of gait in lame sows demonstrated a reduction in the stride length.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 57%

Assessment of lameness in sows using gait, footprints, postural behaviour and foot lesion analysis

Gregoire

Bergeron

D’Allaire

et al. 2013

Animal

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Lameness in sows has an economic impact on pig production and is a major welfare concern. The aim of the present project was to develop methods to evaluate and quantify lameness in breeding sows. Five methods to study lameness were compared between themselves and with visual gait scoring used as a reference: footprint analysis, kinematics, accelerometers, lying-tostanding transition and foot lesion observation. Fifty sows of various parities and stages of gestation were selected using visual gait scoring and distributed into three groups: lame (L), mildly lame (ML) and non-lame (NL). They were then tested using each method. Kinematics showed that L sows had a lower walking speed than NL sows (L: 0.83 6 0.04, NL: 0.96 6 0.03 m/s; P , 0.05), a shorter stride length than ML sows (L: 93.0 6 2.6, ML: 101.2 6 1.5 cm; P , 0.05) and a longer stance time than ML and NL sows (L: 0.83 6 0.03, ML: 0.70 6 0.03, NL: 0.69 6 0.02 s; P , 0.01). Accelerometer measurements revealed that L sows spent less time standing over a 24-h period (L: 6.3 6 1.3, ML: 13.7 6 2.4, NL: 14.5 6 2.4%; P , 0.01), lay down earlier after feeding (L: 33.4 6 4.6, ML: 41.7 6 3.1, NL: 48.6 6 2.9 min; P , 0.05) and tended to step more often during the hour following feeding (L: 10.1 6 2.0, ML: 6.1 6 0.5, NL: 5.4 6 0.4 step/min standing; P 5 0.06) than NL sows, with the ML sows having intermediate values. Visual observation of back posture showed that 64% of L sows had an arched back, compared with only 14% in NL sows (P 5 0.02). Finally, footprint analysis and observation of lying-to-standing transition and foot lesions were not successful in detecting significant differences between L, ML and NL sows. In conclusion, several quantitative variables obtained from kinematics and accelerometers proved to be successful in identifying reliable indicators of lameness in sows. Further work is needed to relate these indicators with causes of lameness and to develop methods that can be implemented on the farm.

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The effect of lameness on lying behaviour of zero grazed Holstein dairy cattle

Blackie

Amory

Bleach

et al. 2011

Applied Animal Behaviour Science

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Impact of lameness on gait characteristics and lying behaviour of zero grazed dairy cattle in early lactation

Cited by 32 publications

References 50 publications

Lameness detection via leg-mounted accelerometers on dairy cows on four commercial farms

Lameness detection via leg-mounted accelerometers on dairy cows on four commercial farms

Assessment of lameness in sows using gait, footprints, postural behaviour and foot lesion analysis

The effect of lameness on lying behaviour of zero grazed Holstein dairy cattle

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