The Role of Infrared Thermography as a Non-Invasive Tool for the Detection of Lameness in Cattle

Abstract

The use of infrared thermography for the identification of lameness in cattle has increased in recent years largely because of its non-invasive properties, ease of automation and continued cost reductions. Thermography can be used to identify and determine thermal abnormalities in animals by characterizing an increase or decrease in the surface temperature of their skin. The variation in superficial thermal patterns resulting from changes in blood flow in particular can be used to detect inflammation or injury associated with conditions such as foot lesions. Thermography has been used not only as a diagnostic tool, but also to evaluate routine farm management. Since 2000, 14 peer reviewed papers which discuss the assessment of thermography to identify and manage lameness in cattle have been published. There was a large difference in thermography performance in these reported studies. However, thermography was demonstrated to have utility for the detection of contralateral temperature difference and maximum foot temperature on areas of interest. Also apparent in these publications was that a controlled environment is an important issue that should be considered before image scanning.

Infrared thermography as a noninvasive method to assess scrotal insulation on sperm production in beef bulls

“…The IRT provides a welfare tool and an animal noninvasively technique for the analysis of physiological functions related to identify thermal anomalies that are characterised by an increase or decrease in TG found on the skin surface (Church et al., ; McCafferty, ; McManus et al., ). This technique involves infrared radiation detection that can be directly correlated with the temperature distribution of a defined region of the body (Alsaaod, Schaefer, Büscher, & Steiner, ; Talukder et al., ). Therefore, IRT is an effective method that shows the changes in physiology and metabolism that might be useful for assessing diagnosis of diseases and environmental effect on reproductive performance in animals under rangeland conditions (Menegassi et al., ; Rekant, Lyons, Pacheco, Arzt, & Rodriguez, ; Schaefer et al., ).…”

“…In rodents, the IRT technique is a good tool to assess temperatures on eyes, nose, internal and external ear suitable for detecting differences in heat stress in rabbits (Lima et al., ). In domestic animals, the IRT is commonly used to detect changes on mammary gland inflammation (Berry, Kennedy, Scott, Kyle, & Schaefer, ; Kunc, Knízková, Prikryl, & Maloun, ), including preventively subclinical mastitis (Martins et al., ), efficient diagnosis in laminitis cows (Alsaaod et al., ; Nikkhah et al., ) and also in cases of early detection of viral systemic activity (Schaefer et al., ). Thus, IFT is accurately to detect many parameters related to animal welfare and it may contribute to additional information on reproductive performance in bulls.…”

Evaluation of infrared thermography, force platform and filmed locomotion score as non-invasive diagnostic methods for acute laminitis in zebu cattle

“…Infrared thermography is a non-invasive evaluation method that produces a pictorial representation of the surface temperature of an object, where the color gradient reflects differences in emitted heat [14]. It has been used for several purposes as a non-invasive animal monitoring method, including as a laminitis diagnostic [9,15]. Heat is one of the cardinal signs of inflammation, and its increase is a consequence of elevated blood flow in the affected area.…”

Effects of physiological stage and season on infrared thermograms of different body areas of dairy cows raised under tropical conditions

“…Thermograms represent the temperature of an object's surface with color, with the hottest areas recorded as white or red and the coldest, as blue or black (Colak et al, 2008). Infrared thermography assists in the early diagnosis of lesions that cause pain and inflammation and thermograpy can be installed in milking parlors to monitor surface temperatures of different areas of the body of dairy cows (Alsaaod et al, 2015). It can also be coupled with water troughs to identify animals and record the temperature of the ocular region, which is highly correlated with rectal temperature (Stewart et al, 2005).…”