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

Abstract

Tick-borne disease is a hemolytic disease complex that causes extensive losses to the dairy industry in tropical regions. Its timely diagnosis is challenging and labor intensive. Our objective was to investigate whether tick-borne disease was associated with changes in ingestive behavior of weaned dairy calves. Weaned calves (n = 35) enrolled at 108 ± 8 d of age were group housed (n = 12, 12, and 11/group) for 4 wk in the experimental pen, which had 12 electronic feed bins and 2 electronic water bins. Data were automatically collected at each feed or water bin visit via radio frequency identification ear tags. Water and total mixed ration were provided ad libitum. Calves were examined weekly for tick-borne disease detection. A disease bout was confirmed if packed cell volume was ≤25% at any exam. Diseased calves received antimicrobial and antipyretic treatment. Data were summarized by day within bin type (feed or water) as intake (kg/d; as-fed basis), frequency of visits (visits/d), and total duration of visits (min/d). Day of detection was set as d 0; a 9-d behavioral screening period for evaluation of behavioral changes was set according to d 0 (d −4 to +4). A within-calf mean was calculated for the healthy period (HP; mean of all days between 2 consecutive negative exams) for each response variable. Data were analyzed as within-calf differences between HP and each day of the behavioral screening period. Tick-borne disease was detected in 12 calves; thus, only data referent to these animals were included in the analyses. Compared with HP, daily feed intake was reduced on d −1, 0, and +1, and daily frequency and total duration of feed bin visits were reduced from d −3 to d +4. Daily feed intake was reduced by 35% on d −1 (3.5 ± 0.4 vs. 5.4 ± 0.5 kg/d for HP), and daily frequency and duration of visits were reduced by 27% (56.3 ± 7.8 vs. 76.7 ± 8.1 visits/d for HP) and 24% (27.0 ± 3.8 vs. 35.4 ± 3.9 min/d for HP) on d −3, respectively. Daily water intake on d 0 (9.1 ± 1.4 kg/d) was lower than at HP (12.9 ± 1.6 kg/d), but other drinking behaviors were not different from healthy means during the screening period. Feeding behavior, but not drinking behavior, was different from HP means before detection at weekly exams. Therefore, feeding behavior could be further explored for the development of algorithms for tick-borne disease detection.

Alternative strategies and new insights into immunology, health, and performance of dairy cattle

“…Moreira (2017) detected first tick-borne disease event about 125 d of age in heifers. It may be consistent with disease's pathogenesis and common postweaning practices that expose calves to outdoor group housing for the first time at approximately 90 d of age (OLIVEIRA JÚNIOR et al, 2018).…”

“…In addition to the research group monitoring, all the animals were visually monitored daily by trained employees and veterinarians from the farm. The tick-borne disease was tracked daily by the presence of clinical signs of paleness of mucous membranes, increased heart and respiratory rates, pyrexia, weakness, lethargy, anorexia (KOCAN et al, 2010), and behavior changes (OLIVEIRA JÚNIOR et al, 2018).…”

Evaluation of Response Time in Monitoring System on the Accuracy of Recording Individual Feeding Behavior and Feed Intake in Dairy Cows

“…We suspected that the changes in feed intake caused by increasing response time may be due to accidental touching of bin bottom by cows, although further veri cation are still needed. 1 Response time was time period set between measurement and trigger of the presence of a cow in monitor system 2 Calculated by the equation of |Monitoring system -Direct weighing|*100%/Direct weighing. Control was the recorded data of feed intake and feeding behavior obtained in monitoring system with response time set at 0.3 s after triggered by the dairy cow.…”

“…Control was the recorded data of feed intake and feeding behavior obtained in monitoring system with response time set at 0.3 s after triggered by the dairy cow. 2 Calculated by the equation of |Control -time interval set at 24 s|*100%/Control.…”

“…Feeding behavior refers to the behaviors related to obtaining and consuming feed, and is an interesting area of research which links the nutritional and behavioral sciences. Such fundamental knowledge is essentially acquired to develop accurate feeding and explore development of algorithms for disease detection [1][2][3][4]. To our current knowledge, most of feeding behavior data has been obtained through direct visual observation or photogrammetry [5][6][7], both of which are labor intensive.…”