Department of Engineering for Livestock Management, Leibniz Institute for Agricultural Engineering and Bioeconomy e.V. (ATB), Max-Eyth-Allee 100, 14469 Potsdam, Germany.
Hochschule Neubrandenburg, Department of Agricultural Machinery, University of Applied Science, Brodaer Straße 2, 17033 Neubrandenburg, Germany.
Sensors (Basel). 2018 Nov 14;18(11):3925. doi: 10.3390/s18113925.
The aim of this study was to evaluate whether the severity of hyperkeratosis (HK) in the teats of dairy cows can be assessed by a dielectric measurement. The study focused on surveying the occurrence of hyperkeratosis in a total of 241 teats of lactating dairy cows. A scoring system consisting of four categories was used to macroscopically assess the severity of HK. Additionally, the dielectric constant (DC) of all teats with milkability was measured in a double iteration with the MoistureMeterD (Delfin Technologies, Kuopio, Finland) on four different days. The Spearman rank correlation coefficient revealed a negative correlation between the DC and HK score (rs = -0.55 to -0.36). The results of the regression analysis showed that the DC values differed significantly between healthy teat ends (≤2) and teat ends with HK (≥3). Thus, the non-invasive measurement of DC provides a promising method of objectively assessing the occurrence and severity of HK.
本研究旨在评估奶牛乳头过度角化（HK）的严重程度是否可以通过介电测量来评估。该研究集中调查了 241 头泌乳奶牛的乳头过度角化的发生情况。使用由四个类别组成的评分系统对 HK 的严重程度进行宏观评估。此外，使用 MoistureMeterD（芬兰 Delfin Technologies）在四天内进行了两次迭代，对所有可挤奶的乳头的介电常数（DC）进行了测量。Spearman 秩相关系数显示 DC 与 HK 评分之间存在负相关（rs=-0.55 至-0.36）。回归分析的结果表明，健康乳头末端（≤2）和 HK 乳头末端（≥3）之间的 DC 值存在显著差异。因此，DC 的非侵入性测量为客观评估 HK 的发生和严重程度提供了一种有前途的方法。
