Department of Ruminant Production, Institut de Recerca i Tecnologia Agroalimentàries (IRTA), 08140 Caldes de Montbui, Spain.
J Dairy Sci. 2012 Nov;95(11):6546-9. doi: 10.3168/jds.2012-5670. Epub 2012 Aug 29.
Lameness is considered one of the most common welfare and productive problems in dairy cattle. The objective of this study was to evaluate differences in lying behavior between moderately lame and nonlame lactating cows under commercial conditions. Data were collected from 10 free-stall commercial herds, which were feeding on exactly the same ration once daily. All lactating cows were scored for lameness according to a 1 to 5 locomotion scoring system. Only cows with a lameness score between 1 and 4 were considered in the study. In each herd, between 10 and 15 lame cows (scored as 3 or 4) were chosen, and for each lame cow, a nonlame cow (scored as 1) within the same parity and similar days in milk was also selected. Pendant data loggers were then placed on the right hind leg of each cow for 10 d to record lying behavior at 1-min intervals. In addition, the time of feed delivery was recorded in each herd on a daily basis. Total daily lying time, daily number of lying bouts, lying bout duration, laterality (side of recumbence), and lying behavior around feed delivery time were evaluated using a mixed-effects model that accounted for the fixed effects of lameness, days in milk, parity, and the interaction between parity and lameness, plus the random effects of herd. Total daily lying time (721±24.2 min/d) tended to increase with days in milk, but it was not affected by lameness or parity. Likewise, no differences were found in the number of lying bouts (9.6±0.49/d) or laterality (47±2.6% of time lying on the right side). However, the mean bout duration was longer in lame (89.3±3.89 min) compared with nonlame (80.7±3.90 min) cows. It is interesting that lame cows stood up 13 min later than nonlame cows relative to the time when the ration was delivered. In addition, lame cows lay down 19 min earlier than nonlame ones after the feed was delivered, which implies that nonlame cows spent more time standing, and probably eating, than did lame cows. It was concluded that lame cows have longer lying bouts than nonlame animals, and that lying behavior around feed delivery time may be an effective proxy to identify moderately lame cows.
跛行被认为是奶牛最常见的福利和生产问题之一。本研究的目的是评估在商业条件下，中度跛行和非跛行泌乳牛的躺卧行为差异。数据来自 10 个自由式商业牛群，这些牛群每天都以相同的日粮喂养。所有泌乳牛都根据 1 到 5 的运动评分系统进行跛行评分。只有跛行评分在 1 到 4 之间的牛才被考虑在研究中。在每个牛群中，选择 10 到 15 头跛行牛（评分 3 或 4），对于每头跛行牛，选择同一胎次和类似泌乳天数的非跛行牛（评分 1）。然后将吊坠数据记录器放置在每头牛的右后腿上，以 1 分钟的间隔记录躺卧行为。此外，每天记录每个牛群的饲料投喂时间。使用混合效应模型评估总日躺卧时间、每日躺卧次数、躺卧持续时间、侧卧（卧姿的一侧）和饲料投喂时间周围的躺卧行为，该模型考虑了跛行、泌乳天数、胎次以及胎次和跛行之间的相互作用的固定效应，以及牛群的随机效应。总日躺卧时间（721±24.2 分钟/天）随着泌乳天数的增加而增加，但不受跛行或胎次的影响。同样，躺卧次数（9.6±0.49/天）或侧卧（右侧卧位时间的 47±2.6%）没有差异。然而，跛行牛的平均躺卧时间较长（89.3±3.89 分钟），而非跛行牛的平均躺卧时间较短（80.7±3.90 分钟）。有趣的是，相对于投食时间，跛行牛比非跛行牛站立起来的时间晚了 13 分钟。此外，投食后，跛行牛比非跛行牛早躺下 19 分钟，这意味着非跛行牛站立和进食的时间比跛行牛多。因此，结论是跛行牛的躺卧时间比非跛行动物长，并且投食前后的躺卧行为可能是识别中度跛行牛的有效替代指标。
