Rumination time around calving: An early signal to detect cows at greater risk of disease

Abstract

The main objective of this experiment was to evaluate the use of rumination time (RT) during the peripartum period as a tool for early disease detection. The study was carried out in an experimental freestall barn and involved 23 Italian Friesian cows (9 primiparous and 14 multiparous). The RT was continuously recorded by using an automatic system (Hr-Tag, SCR Engineers Ltd., Netanya, Israel), and data were summarized in 2-h intervals. Blood samples were collected from 30 d before calving to 42 d in milk (DIM) to assess biochemical indicators related to energy, protein, and mineral metabolism, as well as markers of inflammation and some enzyme activities. The liver functionality index, which includes some negative acute-phase proteins and related parameters (albumin, cholesterol, and bilirubin), was used to evaluate the severity of inflammatory conditions occurring around calving. The cows were retrospectively categorized according to RT observed between 3 and 6 DIM into those with the lowest (L) and highest (H) RT. The average RT before calving (-20 to -2d) was 479 min/d (range 264 to 599), reached a minimum value at calving (30% of RT before calving), and was nearly stable after 15 DIM (on average 452 min/d). Milk yield in early lactation (on average 26.8 kg/d) was positively correlated with RT (r = 0.33). After calving, compared with H cows, the L cows had higher values of haptoglobin (0.61 and 0.34 g/L at 10 DIM in L and H, respectively) for a longer time, had a greater increase in total bilirubin (9.5 and 5.7 μmol/L at 5 DIM in L and H), had greater reductions of albumin (31.2 and 33.5 g/L at 10 DIM in L and H) and paraoxonase (54 and 76 U/ml at 10 DIM in L and H), and had a slower increase of total cholesterol (2.7 and 3.2 mmol/L at 20 DIM in L and H). Furthermore, a lower average value of liver functionality index was observed in L (-6.97) compared with H (-1.91) cows. These results suggest that severe inflammation around parturition is associated with a slower increase of RT after calving. Furthermore, more than 90% of the cows in the L group had clinical diseases in early lactation compared with 42% of the H cows. Overall, our results demonstrate the utility of monitoring RT around calving, and in particular during the first week of lactation, as a way to identify in a timely fashion those cows at a greater risk of developing a disease in early lactation.

Impact of subclinical and clinical mastitis on sensitivity to pain of dairy cows

“…For example, changes in the rumination patterns and daily amount of time spent ruminating were associated with metabolic disorders and were detected several hours or days before onset of clinical symptoms (Fitzpatrick et al, 2013;Calamari et al, 2014). In sheep, ewes diagnosed with subclinical mastitis increased vocalization and reduced head-up postures compared with healthy ewes.…”

The Rumen as a Health Thermometer: Importance of Ruminal Function to the Metabolic Balance in Ruminants – Mini Review

“…Therefore, despite the fact that dietary changes and nutritional shifts can increase the chance of ruminal/metabolic diseases, and may cause more drastic modifications to the future evolutionary adaptations of ruminant digestive system [9,12], new approaches of evaluating ruminal behavior may be a strong marker to predict the risk of diseases and suitable herd welfare [13][14][15][16]. Hence, this review aims to provide recent information of the associations between ruminal behavior and metabolic disorders.…”

“…After the indications that rumination behavior may be a promising indicator of metabolic conditions, new methods to measure and evaluate herd performance have typically focused on feeding comportment in ruminants [30]. Therefore, the introduction of a novel method to indirectly measure RT, evaluates vocal signs and allows automatic measurement of RT to analyze rumination behavior in different environments [13,22]. Results of these studies found that cows with different health problems ruminate less then healthy cows, and therefore, there is a relationship between RT and metabolic conditions such as ketosis, hypocalcemia, and inflammatory blood markers around calving [13,14,22,30].…”

“…This process works not only to break down fiber in forage feeds, but also to maintain several aspects of metabolic balance as; the ideal ruminal pH, ruminal turnover, reabsorption of nitrogen through the urea cycle, and as a sensible measurement of acceptable herd welfare [13,17,18]. Rumen motility can be divided into primary contractions, which affect the whole reticulorumen, and secondary movements, which affect only a part of the organ.…”

“…Reproduction status plays a pivotal role in diminishing the DMI as the transition period begins, dictating how intense and adaptable will be the NEB [13,14,26]. In small ruminants, the high prolific rate increases the risk of energy imbalance during the pre and post-partum, and the sum of a limited physical space in the pregnant abdomen, reduced DMI during this period, and changes to a HC diets are factors that limit and lessen rumen cycles [19,27,28].…”