Objective assessment of lameness in cattle after foot surgery

Abstract

Assessment of lameness in cattle after foot surgery is important to monitor the recovery period, to improve the long-term success and the cows` welfare. This longitudinal multicenter retrospective study was carried out to evaluate the usefulness of automated tools of weight bearing and gait analysis following foot surgery to support the clinician to monitor lameness in cattle. For this purpose, the effect of involvement of different anatomical structures and the use of different surgery methods on gait parameters of post-operative recovery was assessed. The study consisted of 2 experiments and included cattle with unilateral foot pathologies located in the digital region which needed 1 (experiment 1; n = 30) or 2 (experiment 2; n = 4) surgical interventions. The surgical techniques were debridement, joint lavage, partial resection of bones, tendons or synovial structures, total resection of the sesamoid bone and digit amputation. Two accelerometers (400 Hz; kinematic outcome = stance phase duration; kinetic outcome = foot load and toe-off), a 4-scale weighing platform (difference of mean weight distribution across the limbs; Δweight) and a subjective locomotion score were used to evaluate gait parameters every 3 to 4 days after surgery. A repeated measures ANOVA was used in experiment 1 and a receiver operator characteristic analysis was used to determine the optimal cutoff values in experiment 2. Results showed that the differences across limbs for the pedogram variables of stance phases and peaks of foot load and toe-off, Δweight and the locomotion score were highest if joints or sesamoid bones were involved, suggesting that these cattle were more severely lame compared to cattle with more superficial foot pathologies. There was a significantly lower degree of lameness after surgical debridement and after digit amputation compared to partial and total resection of anatomical structures of the foot. The use of accelerometers and a 4-scale weighing platform represent promising objective tools for post-operative monitoring of lameness and can support the clinician in gait assessment to improve the long-term success of surgical interventions in the area of the foot.

Using cluster analysis to differentiate degrees of lameness in cattle

“…Locomotion scoring based on gait and postural changes is a tool to identify lame cows, but subjective assessment of slightly lame animals and non‐lame cows with foot pathologies is difficult as there is no gold standard with which to compare 13 . The correlation of locomotion scoring with objective measurement methods such as accelerometers and platforms measuring bodyweight distribution is only moderate 14 . However, locomotion scoring will remain important given that automatic lameness detection is still far from being adopted in practice.…”

Applications of Technology to Record Locomotion Measurements in Dairy Cows: A Systematic Review

“…Two types of WDP technology have been used in research evaluating factors that may influence dairy cattle locomotion. The first is an Itin + Hotch weighing platform (Futterungstechnik, Liestal, Switzerland) consisting of four independent recording units with one hermitically sealed load cell (HBM, Volketswil, Switzerland) each, which has been used in five studies [ 33 , 35 , 36 , 38 , 40 ]. The second is a Pacific Industrial Scale weighing platform (Richmond, British Columbia, Canada) consisting of four independent recording units each containing four hermetically sealed load cells (Anyload LLC, Santa Rosa, CA, USA, which has been used in two studies [ 32 , 41 ].…”

Intelligent Perception-Based Cattle Lameness Detection and Behaviour Recognition: A Review

“…In addition, due to its high prevalence on farms, lameness is regarded as a major health and economic concern in modern cattle farming. As such, the detection of lameness in an accurate and timely manner is of great significance [ 24 , 25 ]. However, the cause and prevalence of lameness vary between production systems (pastures and barns) and farm management but lameness is typically found in between 10% and 30% of the herd [ 26 ].…”

“…Generally speaking, these approaches use sensors to measure behavioural (e.g., lying, standing, and walking time) and production variables (e.g., milking order and milk yield) for final lameness detection [ 61 ]. For example, ALSSs in Buisman et al [ 25 ] relied on the use of on-cow sensors such as accelerometers to detect alterations in behaviour, such as the duration of lying or standing bouts, and the total time lying down or standing per day. In fact, lying time is a commonly used behaviour metric in several works [ 69 , 70 , 71 ], while ALSSs is based on production information and mainly focuses on the live weight, or milk yield and collection time.…”