Swartz Turner H, Schramm Hollie H, Petersson-Wolfe Christina S
Department of Animal Science, Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI 48824.
VA-MD College of Veterinary Medicine, Blacksburg, VA 24061.
Vet Anim Sci. 2020 Apr 14;9:100111. doi: 10.1016/j.vas.2020.100111. eCollection 2020 Jun.
The objective of this study was to determine the association of neonatal calf diarrhea (NCD) with step activity and lying behaviors in pre-weaned dairy calves. Calves were housed in individual hutches for the first 6 days of life, and then moved into a group pen. On the day of birth, calves (n = 30) were fitted with an accelerometer, and step activity and lying behaviors were recorded. Calves were assigned a fecal score (FS) twice daily using a 0 to 3 scale, and were diagnosed with NCD (n = 10) when the score was a 3. To ensure the only association noted was due to NCD, calves that had any other health complications were excluded from analyses (n = 1). Calves with NCD were pair matched by age, breed, and birthdate to a healthy calf. Day 0 was designated as the date of NCD diagnosis. Calves with NCD spent less time lying ( < 0.05) and displayed more lying bouts ( < 0.05) of a shorter duration ( < 0.01) than healthy calves. Specifically, calves with NCD displayed more lying bouts on days -7 ( < 0.05), -6 ( < 0.01), -5 ( < 0.01), -4 ( < 0.01), and -3 ( < 0.05). Similarly, lying bout duration was shorter for calves with NCD on days -6 ( < 0.05), -5 ( < 0.05), -4 ( < 0.01), and -3 ( < 0.01). Additional research is needed to examine if these tools can be used to identify diseased calves prospectively.
本研究的目的是确定新生犊牛腹泻（NCD）与断奶前奶牛犊牛的步活动及躺卧行为之间的关联。犊牛在出生后的前6天单独饲养在犊牛栏中，然后转入群养栏。出生当天，给30头犊牛佩戴加速度计，记录步活动和躺卧行为。每天两次使用0至3分制给犊牛评定粪便评分（FS），评分达到3分时诊断为NCD（共10头）。为确保观察到的唯一关联是由NCD引起的，将有任何其他健康并发症的犊牛排除在分析之外（1头）。将患NCD的犊牛按年龄、品种和出生日期与健康犊牛进行配对。将第0天指定为NCD诊断日期。与健康犊牛相比，患NCD的犊牛躺卧时间更少（<0.05），躺卧次数更多（<0.05），且每次躺卧持续时间更短（<0.01）。具体而言，患NCD的犊牛在第-7天（<0.05）、-6天（<0.01）、-5天（<0.01）、-4天（<0.01）和-3天（<0.05）躺卧次数更多。同样，患NCD的犊牛在第-6天（<0.05）、-5天（<0.05）、-4天（<0.01）和-3天（<0.01）躺卧持续时间更短。是否可以使用这些工具前瞻性地识别患病犊牛，还需要进一步研究。
