Bausewein Mathias, Mansfeld Rolf, Doherr Marcus G, Harms Jan, Sorge Ulrike S
Bavarian Animal Health Services, 85586 Poing-Grub, Germany.
Clinic for Ruminants with Ambulatory and Herd Health Services, Centre for Clinical Veterinary Medicine, LMU Munich, 85764 Oberschleissheim, Germany.
Animals (Basel). 2022 Aug 19;12(16):2131. doi: 10.3390/ani12162131.
In automatic milking systems (AMSs), the detection of clinical mastitis (CM) and the subsequent separation of abnormal milk should be reliably performed by commercial AMSs. Therefore, the objectives of this cross-sectional study were (1) to determine the sensitivity (SN) and specificity (SP) of CM detection of AMS by the four most common manufacturers in Bavarian dairy farms, and (2) to identify routinely collected cow data (AMS and monthly test day data of the regional Dairy Herd Improvement Association (DHIA)) that could improve the SN and SP of clinical mastitis detection. Bavarian dairy farms with AMS from the manufacturers DeLaval, GEA Farm Technologies, Lely, and Lemmer-Fullwood were recruited with the aim of sampling at least 40 cows with clinical mastitis per AMS manufacturer in addition to clinically healthy ones. During a single farm visit, cow-level milking information was first electronically extracted from each AMS and then all lactating cows examined for their udder health status in the barn. Clinical mastitis was defined as at least the presence of visibly abnormal milk. In addition, available DHIA test results from the previous six months were collected. None of the manufacturers provided a definition for clinical mastitis (i.e., visually abnormal milk), therefore, the SN and SP of AMS warning lists for udder health were assessed for each manufacturer individually, based on the clinical evaluation results. Generalized linear mixed models (GLMMs) with herd as random effect were used to determine the potential influence of routinely recorded parameters on SN and SP. A total of 7411 cows on 114 farms were assessed; of these, 7096 cows could be matched to AMS data and were included in the analysis. The prevalence of clinical mastitis was 3.4% (239 cows). When considering the 95% confidence interval (95% CI), all but one manufacturer achieved the minimum SN limit of >80%: DeLaval (SN: 61.4% (95% CI: 49.0%−72.8%)), GEA (75.9% (62.4%−86.5%)), Lely (78.2% (67.4%−86.8%)), and Lemmer-Fullwood (67.6% (50.2%−82.0%)). However, none of the evaluated AMSs achieved the minimum SP limit of 99%: DeLaval (SP: 89.3% (95% CI: 87.7%−90.7%)), GEA (79.2% (77.1%−81.2%)), Lely (86.2% (84.6%−87.7%)), and Lemmer-Fullwood (92.2% (90.8%−93.5%)). All AMS manufacturers’ robots showed an association of SP with cow classification based on somatic cell count (SCC) measurement from the last two DHIA test results: cows that were above the threshold of 100,000 cells/mL for subclinical mastitis on both test days had lower chances of being classified as healthy by the AMS compared to cows that were below the threshold. In conclusion, the detection of clinical mastitis cases was satisfactory across AMS manufacturers. However, the low SP will lead to unnecessarily discarded milk and increased workload to assess potentially false-positive mastitis cases. Based on the results of our study, farmers must evaluate all available data (test day data, AMS data, and daily assessment of their cows in the barn) to make decisions about individual cows and to ultimately ensure animal welfare, food quality, and the economic viability of their farm.
在自动挤奶系统(AMS)中,商业AMS应可靠地检测临床型乳房炎(CM)并随后分离异常牛奶。因此,本横断面研究的目的是:(1)确定巴伐利亚奶牛场中四家最常见制造商的AMS检测CM的敏感性(SN)和特异性(SP);(2)识别常规收集的奶牛数据(AMS数据以及地区奶牛群改良协会(DHIA)的月度检测日数据),这些数据可提高临床型乳房炎检测的SN和SP。招募了配备来自利拉伐、基伊埃农场技术公司、利来和莱默 - 富尔伍德制造商的AMS的巴伐利亚奶牛场,目标是除了临床健康的奶牛外,每个AMS制造商至少采集40头患有临床型乳房炎的奶牛样本。在单次农场访问期间,首先从每个AMS中电子提取奶牛层面的挤奶信息,然后在牛舍中检查所有泌乳奶牛的乳房健康状况。临床型乳房炎定义为至少存在明显异常的牛奶。此外,收集了前六个月可用的DHIA检测结果。没有一个制造商提供临床型乳房炎的定义(即明显异常的牛奶),因此,基于临床评估结果,分别评估了每个制造商的AMS乳房健康警告列表的SN和SP。使用以牛群为随机效应的广义线性混合模型(GLMM)来确定常规记录参数对SN和SP的潜在影响。共评估了114个农场的7411头奶牛;其中,7096头奶牛的信息可与AMS数据匹配并纳入分析。临床型乳房炎的患病率为3.4%(239头奶牛)。考虑95%置信区间(95%CI)时,除一家制造商外,其他所有制造商均达到了>80%的最低SN限值:利拉伐(SN:61.4%(95%CI:49.0%−72.8%))、基伊埃(75.9%(62.4%−86.5%))、利来(78.2%(67.4%−86.8%))和莱默 - 富尔伍德(67.6%(50.2%−82.0%))。然而,所评估的AMS均未达到99%的最低SP限值:利拉伐(SP:89.3%(95%CI:87.7%−90.7%))、基伊埃(79.2%(77.1%−81.2%))、利来(86.2%(84.6%−87.7%))和莱默 - 富尔伍德(92.2%(90.8%−93.5%))。所有AMS制造商的机器人都显示,SP与基于最近两次DHIA检测结果的体细胞计数(SCC)测量的奶牛分类相关:与两次检测日均低于100,000个细胞/毫升亚临床型乳房炎阈值的奶牛相比,两次检测日均高于该阈值的奶牛被AMS判定为健康的可能性较低。总之,各AMS制造商对临床型乳房炎病例的检测情况令人满意。然而,低SP会导致不必要地丢弃牛奶,并增加评估潜在假阳性乳房炎病例的工作量。根据我们的研究结果,奶农必须评估所有可用数据(检测日数据、AMS数据以及在牛舍中对奶牛的日常评估),以便对每头奶牛做出决策,并最终确保动物福利、食品质量和农场的经济可行性。