Relation of Subclinical Ketosis of Dairy Cows with Locomotion Behaviour and Ambient Temperature

Ramūnas Antanaitis; Vida Juozaitienė; Mindaugas Televičius; Dovilė Malašauskienė; Mingaudas Urbutis; Walter Baumgartner

doi:10.3390/ani10122311

Relation of Subclinical Ketosis of Dairy Cows with Locomotion Behaviour and Ambient Temperature

Animals (Basel). 2020 Dec 7;10(12):2311. doi: 10.3390/ani10122311.

Authors

Ramūnas Antanaitis¹, Vida Juozaitienė², Mindaugas Televičius¹, Dovilė Malašauskienė¹, Mingaudas Urbutis¹, Walter Baumgartner³

Affiliations

¹ Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania.
² Department of Animal Breeding, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania.
³ University Clinic for Ruminants, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinaerplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria.

Abstract

Rumination time, chewing time and drinking time are indicators that can be assessed in case of cow disease. In this research, two groups of cows were formed: cows with subclinical ketosis (SCK; n = 10) and healthy cows (HG; n = 10). Behaviour such as walking activity, feeding time with head position up, feeding time with head position down, change of activity and average, minimal and maximal ambient temperature of cows were recorded by the RumiWatch noseband system (RWS; RumiWatch System, Itin+Hoch GmbH, Liestal, Switzerland). The RWS comprises a noseband halter with a built-in pressure sensor and a liquid-filled pressure tube. Data from each studied cow were recorded for 420 h. According to the results of our study, it was determined that cows diagnosed with subclinical ketosis showed a tendency to change their activity more frequently. Our data indicates that minimal and maximal ambient temperatures are related with SCK.

Keywords: innovation in animal farming; sensors; smart farming.