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Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle

One critical point of dairy farm management is calving and neonatal first care. Timely calving assistance is associated with the reduction of calf mortality and postpartum uterine disease, and with improved fertility in dairy cattle. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and profitability of...

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Autores principales: Crociati, Martina, Sylla, Lakamy, Stradaioli, Giuseppe, Monaci, Maurizio, Zecconi, Alfonso
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8706507/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34960442
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21248348
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author Crociati, Martina
Sylla, Lakamy
Stradaioli, Giuseppe
Monaci, Maurizio
Zecconi, Alfonso
author_facet Crociati, Martina
Sylla, Lakamy
Stradaioli, Giuseppe
Monaci, Maurizio
Zecconi, Alfonso
author_sort Crociati, Martina
collection PubMed
description One critical point of dairy farm management is calving and neonatal first care. Timely calving assistance is associated with the reduction of calf mortality and postpartum uterine disease, and with improved fertility in dairy cattle. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and profitability of an intravaginal sensor for the prediction of stage II of labor in dairy farms, thus allowing proper calving assistance. Seventy-three late-gestating Italian Holstein cows were submitted to the insertion of an intravaginal device, equipped with light and temperature sensors, connected with a Central Unit for the commutation of a radio-signal into a cell phone alert. The remote calving alarm correctly identified the beginning of the expulsive phase of labor in 86.3% of the monitored cows. The mean interval from alarm to complete expulsion of the fetus was 71.56 ± 52.98 min, with a greater range in cows with dystocia (p = 0.012). The sensor worked correctly in both cold and warm weather conditions, and during day- or night-time. The intravaginal probe was well tolerated, as any cow showed lesions to the vaginal mucosa after calving. Using sex-sorted semen in heifers and beef bull semen in cows at their last lactation, the economic estimation performed through PrecisionTree™ software led to an income improvement of 119 € and 123 €/monitored delivery in primiparous and pluriparous cows, respectively. Remote calving alarm devices are key components of “precision farming” management and proven to improve animal welfare, to reduce calf losses and to increase farm incomes.
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spelling pubmed-87065072021-12-25 Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle Crociati, Martina Sylla, Lakamy Stradaioli, Giuseppe Monaci, Maurizio Zecconi, Alfonso Sensors (Basel) Article One critical point of dairy farm management is calving and neonatal first care. Timely calving assistance is associated with the reduction of calf mortality and postpartum uterine disease, and with improved fertility in dairy cattle. This study aimed to evaluate the performance and profitability of an intravaginal sensor for the prediction of stage II of labor in dairy farms, thus allowing proper calving assistance. Seventy-three late-gestating Italian Holstein cows were submitted to the insertion of an intravaginal device, equipped with light and temperature sensors, connected with a Central Unit for the commutation of a radio-signal into a cell phone alert. The remote calving alarm correctly identified the beginning of the expulsive phase of labor in 86.3% of the monitored cows. The mean interval from alarm to complete expulsion of the fetus was 71.56 ± 52.98 min, with a greater range in cows with dystocia (p = 0.012). The sensor worked correctly in both cold and warm weather conditions, and during day- or night-time. The intravaginal probe was well tolerated, as any cow showed lesions to the vaginal mucosa after calving. Using sex-sorted semen in heifers and beef bull semen in cows at their last lactation, the economic estimation performed through PrecisionTree™ software led to an income improvement of 119 € and 123 €/monitored delivery in primiparous and pluriparous cows, respectively. Remote calving alarm devices are key components of “precision farming” management and proven to improve animal welfare, to reduce calf losses and to increase farm incomes. MDPI 2021-12-14 /pmc/articles/PMC8706507/ /pubmed/34960442 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21248348 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Crociati, Martina
Sylla, Lakamy
Stradaioli, Giuseppe
Monaci, Maurizio
Zecconi, Alfonso
Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle
title Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle
title_full Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle
title_fullStr Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle
title_full_unstemmed Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle
title_short Assessment of Sensitivity and Profitability of an Intravaginal Sensor for Remote Calving Prediction in Dairy Cattle
title_sort assessment of sensitivity and profitability of an intravaginal sensor for remote calving prediction in dairy cattle
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8706507/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34960442
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/s21248348
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