Influence of Barn Climate, Body Postures and Milk Yield on the Respiration Rate of Dairy Cows

Pinto, Severino; Hoffmann, Gundula; Ammon, Christian; Amon, Barbara; Heuwieser, W.; Halachmi, I.; Banhazi, Thomas; Amon, Thomas

doi:10.2478/aoas-2019-0006

Cited by 37 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…All the physiological parameters measured in the present study were positively correlated with THI. Respiration rate is a reliable physiological parameter for predicting heat stress in dairy cattle [51] and has been found to increase with THI [52,53]. In this study, lactating cows thus respired faster and spent more time panting and trying to adjust to the HS conditions compared to cows under thermoneutral conditions.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Heat Stress Impacts on Lactating Cows Grazing Australian Summer Pastures on an Automatic Robotic Dairy

Osei-Amponsah

Dunshea

Leury

et al. 2020

Animals

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The objective of this study was to measure the impacts of summer heat events on physiological parameters (body temperature, respiratory rate and panting scores), grazing behaviour and production parameters of lactating Holstein Friesian cows managed on an Automated Robotic Dairy during Australian summer. The severity of heat stress was measured using Temperature-Humidity Index (THI) and impacts of different THIs—low (≤72), moderate (73–82) and high (≥83)—on physiological responses and production performance were measured. There was a highly significant (p ≤ 0.01) effect of THI on respiratory rate (66.7, 84.7 and 109.1/min), panting scores (1.4, 1.9 and 2.3) and average body temperature of cows (38.4, 39.4 and 41.5 °C), which increased as THI increased from low to moderate to high over the summer. Average milk production parameters were also significantly (p ≤ 0.01) affected by THI, such that daily milk production dropped by 14% from low to high THI, milk temperature and fat% increased by 3%, whilst protein% increased by 2%. The lactation stage of cow had no significant effect on physiological parameters but affected (p ≤ 0.05) average daily milk yield and milk solids. Highly significant (p ≤ 0.01) positive correlations were obtained between THI and milk temperature, fat% and protein% whilst the reverse was observed between THI and milk yield, feed intake and rumination time. Under moderate and high THI, most cows sought shade, spent more time around watering points and showed signs of distress (excessive salivation and open mouth panting). In view of the expected future increase in the frequency and severity of heat events, additional strategies including selection and breeding for thermotolerance and dietary interventions to improve resilience of cows need to be pursued.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 68%

Heat Stress Impacts on Lactating Cows Grazing Australian Summer Pastures on an Automatic Robotic Dairy

Osei-Amponsah

Dunshea

Leury

et al. 2020

Animals

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“…Furthermore, under heat stress conditions cows tend to adapt their body posture together with the respiration rate (Pinto et al, 2019b). As laying down decreases the body surface area of cows that is exposed to air by approximately 42 %, the effect of wind differs depending on the body posture.…”

Section: Stress Indexmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The respiration rate, measured in breaths per minute (bpm), is particularly valuable to evaluate instantaneous heat stress as it is affected by the ambient conditions with little or no time lag (Pinto et al, 2019a;Galán et al, 2018;Brown-Brandl et al, 2005). While under thermoneutral conditions the respiration rate ranges from 15 to 36 bpm, high-yielding dairy cattle tend to increase their respiration rate by 27 to 39 bpm if THI increases from THI ≤ 68 to THI ≥ 80 (i.e., 2-4 bpm per THI unit) (Dirksen et al, 1990;Jackson and Cockcroft, 2008;Pinto et al, 2019b;Berman et al, 1985;Ominski et al, 2002). As a consequence, based on our results an increase of approximately 9 bpm (i.e., 25 % to 60 % relative to the normal respiration rate) can be expected under RCP 8.5 during one-tenth of all hours of a year or one-fourth of all summer hours in addition to the current situation in the reference barns in our focus regions.…”

Section: Welfare Impactmentioning

confidence: 99%

Heat stress risk in European dairy cattle husbandry under different climate change scenarios – uncertainties and potential impacts

et al. 2019

Self Cite

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Abstract. In the last decades, a global warming trend was observed. Along with the temperature increase, modifications in the humidity and wind regime amplify the regional and local impacts on livestock husbandry. Direct impacts include the occurrence of climatic stress conditions. In Europe, cows are economically highly relevant and are mainly kept in naturally ventilated buildings that are most susceptible to climate change. The high-yielding cows are particularly vulnerable to heat stress. Modifications in housing management are the main measures taken to improve the ability of livestock to cope with these conditions. Measures are typically taken in direct reaction to uncomfortable conditions instead of in anticipation of a long-term risk for climatic stress. Measures that balance welfare, environmental and economic issues are barely investigated in the context of climate change and are thus almost not available for commercial farms. Quantitative analysis of the climate change impacts on animal welfare and linked economic and environmental factors is rare. Therefore, we used a numerical modeling approach to estimate the future heat stress risk in such dairy cattle husbandry systems. The indoor climate was monitored inside three reference barns in central Europe and the Mediterranean regions. An artificial neuronal network (ANN) was trained to relate the outdoor weather conditions provided by official meteorological weather stations to the measured indoor microclimate. Subsequently, this ANN model was driven by an ensemble of regional climate model projections with three different greenhouse gas concentration scenarios. For the evaluation of the heat stress risk, we considered the number and duration of heat stress events. Based on the changes in the heat stress events, various economic and environmental impacts were estimated. The impacts of the projected increase in heat stress risk varied among the barns due to different locations and designs as well as the anticipated climate change (considering different climate models and future greenhouse gas concentrations). There was an overall increasing trend in number and duration of heat stress events. At the end of the century, the number of annual stress events can be expected to increase by up to 2000, while the average duration of the events increases by up to 22 h compared to the end of the last century. This implies strong impacts on economics, environment and animal welfare and an urgent need for mid-term adaptation strategies. We anticipated that up to one-tenth of all hours of a year, correspondingly one-third of all days, will be classified as critical heat stress conditions. Due to heat stress, milk yield may decrease by about 2.8 % relative to the present European milk yield, and farmers may expect financial losses in the summer season of about 5.4 % of their monthly income. In addition, an increasing demand for emission reduction measures must be expected, as an emission increase of about 16 Gg of ammonia and 0.1 Gg of methane per year can be expected under the anticipated heat stress conditions. The cattle respiration rate increases by up to 60 %, and the standing time may be prolonged by 1 h. This causes health issues and increases the probability of medical treatments. The various impacts imply feedback loops in the climate system which are presently underexplored. Hence, future in-depth studies on the different impacts and adaptation options at different stress levels are highly recommended.

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“…However, the advanced (for several days) fixing of covers from a metal grid without sensors in the boxes should warn "excessive interest "of cows to the placed equipment. The single data given by the authors (Trofimov et al, 2014;Sofronov et al, 2016;Voloshchuk & Khotsenko, 2017) on the dynamics of the indicators of temperature and relative humidity in the buildings, without taking into account their integral effect, do not fully reflect the state of comfort of the cows, to evaluate which in hot period the temperature-humidity index is used (Vtoryi et al, 2018;Mijic et al, 2019;Pinto et al, 2019;. Researchers believe (Hammami et al, 2013;Herbut et al, 2018) that the index value below 68 corresponds to comfortable conditions for animals and is the limit above which they are prone to heat stress.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ecological substantiation of the normalization of the state of the air environment in the uninsulated barn in the hot period

Mylostyvyi¹,

Chernenko²,

Izhboldina³

et al. 2019

Ukr J Ecol

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The results of the assessment of the temperature-humidity regime in the modern uninsulated barn in the summer period with external temperature fluctuations from +16.6°С to +37.2°С are presented. It was established that the indoor climate was significantly related to the state of the environment (r=0.95; p 0.001). Significant differences were found in terms of the temperature-humidity index (1.6–5.1 units) in different parts of the building, which may affect the state of comfort of the animals. The use of additional (except natural) ventilation in order to normalize the air environment should be carried out taking into account the time of day and the area of the room.

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Influence of Barn Climate, Body Postures and Milk Yield on the Respiration Rate of Dairy Cows

Cited by 37 publications

References 37 publications

Heat Stress Impacts on Lactating Cows Grazing Australian Summer Pastures on an Automatic Robotic Dairy

Heat Stress Impacts on Lactating Cows Grazing Australian Summer Pastures on an Automatic Robotic Dairy

Heat stress risk in European dairy cattle husbandry under different climate change scenarios – uncertainties and potential impacts

Ecological substantiation of the normalization of the state of the air environment in the uninsulated barn in the hot period

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