Title (eng)

Evaluation of sensor-based health monitoring in dairy cows: Exploiting rumination times for health alerts around parturition

Author

Anne Simoni   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Michael Iwersen   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Marc Drillich   Freie Universität Berlin

T. Breuer   Zoetis Germany GmbH

M. Klawitter   Zoetis Germany GmbH

A. Hancock   Zoetis International

Felix König   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

Karina Regina Weimar   University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna

C. Wunderlich   Zoetis International

Publishing

Elsevier

Description (eng)

The use of sensor-based measures of rumination time as a parameter for early disease detection has received a lot of attention in scientific research. This study aimed to assess the accuracy of health alerts triggered by a sensor-based accelerometer system within 2 different management strategies on a commercial dairy farm. Multiparous Holstein cows were enrolled during the dry-off period and randomly allocated to conventional (CON) or sensor-based (SEN) management groups at calving. All cows were monitored for disorders for a minimum of 10 DIM following standardized operating procedures (SOP). The CON group (n = 199) followed an established monitoring protocol on the farm. The health alerts of this group were not available during the study but were later included in the analysis. The SEN group (n = 197) was only investigated when the sensor system triggered a health alert, and a more intensive monitoring approach was implemented according to the SOP. To analyze the efficiency of the health alerts in detecting disorders, the sensitivity (SE) and specificity (SP) of health alerts were determined for the CON group. In
addition, all cows were divided into 3 subgroups based on their health status and the status of the health alerts in order to retrospectively compare the course of rumination time. Most health alerts (87%, n = 217) occurred on DIM 1. For the confirmation of diagnoses, health alerts showed SE and SP levels of 71% and 47% for CON cows. In SEN cows, SE of 71% and 75% and SP of 48% and 43% were found for the detection of ketosis and hypocalcemia, respectively. The rumination time of the subgroups was affected by DIM and the interaction between DIM and the status of health alert and health condition.

Object languages

English

Date

2024

Rights

This work is licensed under a
CC BY 4.0 - Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

CC BY 4.0 International

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Classification

Animals; Cattle; Female; Parturition; Cattle Diseases Diagnosis; Dairying Methods; Pregnancy; Lactation

Member of the Collection(s) (1)