The Effect of Hock Injury Laterality and Lameness on Lying Behaviors and Lying Laterality in Holstein Dairy Cows

Abstract

Simple SummaryDairy cattle may experience discomfort in a myriad of ways throughout their life cycle, particularly when sustaining hock injuries or suboptimal locomotion. Lactating dairy cattle divide their lying time equally between left and right sides; however, discomfort experienced during pregnancy or following cannulation can cause a shift in the normal lying laterality. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of hock injuries and lameness on the lying behaviors of dairy cattle, particularly lying laterality. Lying laterality did not differ from the expected 50% (left side lying time) in cattle with hock injuries, lameness, or both. The current results suggest that lying laterality does not differ between varying levels of hock injury or lameness severity. Going forward, further research could determine if lying laterality shifts over the course of the animal developing a hock injury or lameness.AbstractLactating dairy cattle divide their lying equally between their left side and their right side. However, discomfort, such as pregnancy and cannulation, can cause a cow to shift lying side preference. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of lameness and hock injuries on lying behaviors, particularly lying laterality, of lactating dairy cows. Cows from four commercial farms in eastern Croatia that had lying behavior data, health score data, and production records were used in the study. Health scores including hock injuries and locomotion were collected once per cow. Severely lame cows had greater daily lying time compared to sound cows and moderately lame cows. Overall, cows spent 51.3 ± 1.2% of their daily lying time on the left side. Maximum hock score, locomotion score, hock injury laterality, or parity did not result in lying laterality differing from 50%.

Retrospective Evaluation of Claw Lesions, Inflammatory Markers, and Outcome after Abomasal Rolling in Cattle with Left Displacement of the Abomasum

“…According to Feist et al [17], cattle tend and prefer to lie on the side of the affected limb after claw surgeries. On the other hand, studies showed that there is no difference in laterality of lying between lame and non-lame cows [15], or in cows with hock lesions of different severity [16]. Looking at these contradictory results from previous studies, lameness laterality does not seem to be trustworthy as a proxy for lying behavior.…”

“…In lame cows, lying time and number of lying bouts increases [14,15]. Daily lying time, frequency/number of lying bouts [14][15][16], average duration of lying bouts [14], and side of recumbency (laterality) [15,16] can be assessed using electronic data loggers [14][15][16]. Lameness [15] as well as side of hock lesion [16] do not seem to have an influence on the side cows preferred to lie on.…”

From Science to Practice: A Review of Laterality Research on Ungulate Livestock

“…For instance, lameness was found to induce asymmetrical locomotion in horses only when they were circling to the left [52], which may indicate a higher sensitivity in the left legs. However, other studies in horses and cattle found no interaction between lameness and lateralized behavior [76,115,142,145,148]. In contrast, mastitis was found to affect lying side preferences of cows, with one study indicating a more left-sided preference [136] and another study indicating stronger side preferences (141).…”

A Review: Development of Computer Vision-Based Lameness Detection for Dairy Cows and Discussion of the Practical Applications

“…Lameness can also affect dairy cows’ daily activities and cause behavioral changes [ 115 ]. Accelerometers can be used to record dairy cow behaviors [ 48 , 116 , 117 , 118 , 119 , 120 ], activities [ 97 , 121 ] and lying-down times [ 122 ]. These data are then analyzed to determine whether the activities are abnormal, to indirectly detect dairy cow lameness and to predict lameness via long-term data comparative analyses.…”