Short communication: Automated detection of behavioral changes from respiratory disease in pre-weaned calves

Abstract

Group housing of calves can pose a challenge in identifying respiratory disease; therefore, it is necessary to develop tools that can identify these disease events. In this experiment, pre-weaned calves (n = 30) were housed in groups with an automatic calf feeder and were fitted with an accelerometer. Step activity, lying behaviors, and feeding behaviors were recorded to determine the effect of respiratory disease. All calves were health scored twice daily, and calves with respiratory scores ≥5 were diagnosed with respiratory disease (n = 10). Each diseased calf was match paired with a healthy control based on the date of disease diagnosis, breed, and age. Control calves were determined to be healthy if they had respiratory scores ≤4, as well as fecal, navel, and joint scores of 0 or 1. Diseased calves were less active before, on the day of, and after respiratory disease diagnosis. Furthermore, diseased calves had reduced lying frequencies starting 2 d before diagnosis, as well as after diagnosis. Last, diseased calves consumed less milk on the day of diagnosis when compared with healthy controls. Step activity, lying bouts, and milk intake may prove to be a useful tool in identifying respiratory disease under practical farming, but this requires further research.

Measurement of dairy calf behavior prior to onset of clinical disease and in response to disbudding using automated calf feeders and accelerometers

“…Differences in feeding behavior among studies may relate to the pathogenesis of the disease. In other studies, calves were diagnosed with a range of illnesses, including gastrointestinal, respiratory, or a combination of these diseases (Borderas et al, 2009;Swartz et al, 2017), or other signs of disease such as arthritis, fever, dull calf syndrome, and so on (Svensson and Jensen, 2007). However, in those studies, samples were not taken to verify the pathogenesis of the diseases.…”

“…Once an animal displays clinical signs of NCD, much of the associated tissue damage to the intestinal submuscosa has already 8209 occurred (Schroeder et al, 2012); therefore, early detection of NCD would enable calves to be promptly treated and moved to sick pens thereby reducing tissue damage and risk of disease transmission to other calves. Previous studies using ACFS and accelerometers have reported changes in feeding (Svensson and Jensen, 2007;Borderas et al, 2009;Lowe et al, 2016) and lying behavior (Swartz et al, 2017) in response to NCD and respiratory disease. However, those studies predominantly focused on changes in behavior once calves became clinically ill or the time period just prior (Svensson and Jensen, 2007;Borderas et al, 2009), or calves that were diagnosed with respiratory disease (Swartz et al, 2017).…”

“…Previous studies using ACFS and accelerometers have reported changes in feeding (Svensson and Jensen, 2007;Borderas et al, 2009;Lowe et al, 2016) and lying behavior (Swartz et al, 2017) in response to NCD and respiratory disease. However, those studies predominantly focused on changes in behavior once calves became clinically ill or the time period just prior (Svensson and Jensen, 2007;Borderas et al, 2009), or calves that were diagnosed with respiratory disease (Swartz et al, 2017). To our knowledge, no studies have measured changes in feeding in conjunction with lying behavior in calves before diagnosis with NCD.…”

Short communication: Tick-borne disease is associated with changes in feeding behavior in automatically fed weaned dairy calves

“…Reduced feed intake is often an early sign of disease (Johnson, 2002) that can now be continuously monitored using precision dairy management technologies. For example, it has been reported that calves reduce milk intake at the day of respiratory disease diagnosis (Swartz et al, 2017) and that cows present reduced DMI in the first 2 wk of lactation before the diagnosis of metritis (Huzzey et al, 2007;Schirmann et al, 2016). Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to investigate the association between tick-borne disease and feeding and drinking behavior (total daily intake, frequency of visits, and total duration of visits) of weaned calves relative to weekly disease detection routine.…”

Physiological and behavioral responses as indicators for early disease detection in dairy calves

“…Infrared thermography has also been used to investigate how temperature changes at different anatomical areas relate to the onset of BVD (Schaefer et al, 2004) and differences in feed efficiency (Montanholi et al, 2009(Montanholi et al, , 2010Martello et al, 2016). Moreover, changes in feeding behaviors, measured using automated calf feeders, have been used to assess disease in calves (Svensson and Jensen, 2007;Borderas et al, 2009;Swartz et al, 2017;Sutherland et al, 2018). Automated calf feeders are able to record information, including milk consumption, visit duration, and the number of rewarded (calf receives an allocation of milk) and unrewarded (calf does not receive an allocation of milk) visits calves make to the feeder.…”