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Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows

The dairy industry faces major challenges with high levels of lameness, in parallel to an increased consumer focus on animal welfare. This encourages farmers to consider more robust breeds, such as Jersey cows. As little is known about the behavior of this breed under loose housing conditions, the p...

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Autores principales: Gündel, Sandra, Looft, Christian, Foldager, Leslie, Thomsen, Peter T.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9530783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36204289
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.980238
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author Gündel, Sandra
Looft, Christian
Foldager, Leslie
Thomsen, Peter T.
author_facet Gündel, Sandra
Looft, Christian
Foldager, Leslie
Thomsen, Peter T.
author_sort Gündel, Sandra
collection PubMed
description The dairy industry faces major challenges with high levels of lameness, in parallel to an increased consumer focus on animal welfare. This encourages farmers to consider more robust breeds, such as Jersey cows. As little is known about the behavior of this breed under loose housing conditions, the present study sought to describe the feeding behavior of lame and non-lame Jersey cows in different parities. Such breed-specific information of behavioral changes is needed for breed-specific herd management decisions and may contribute to identifying animals that are susceptible to developing lameness in the future, thus reducing impacts on the welfare and production of cows. Feeding data from 116 Danish Jersey cows were collected using automatic feeders, and lameness status was assessed by technicians every second week. The cows were kept in a loose housing system, with cubicles, a slatted concrete floor, and automatic milking robots. Eating time per visit and per day, the number of visits per day, and intervals between meals were analyzed using generalized linear mixed effects models. The effect of lameness was not significant for any variable. Primiparous Jersey cows had significantly longer eating times per day, shorter meal intervals, and a lower number of visits per day than older Jersey cows. Week in lactation affected the eating time per visit and per day, the number of visits, and between-meal intervals. In conclusion, we found no differences between lame and non-lame Jersey cows but between parities, which disagree with previous research on other breeds, suggesting that Jersey cows not just differ in size and looks but also in their behavioral reaction when lame. Although data from only one herd of a research center were used, this study has demonstrated the need for further research about breed-specific differences and their implications for the health and welfare of the animals.
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spelling pubmed-95307832022-10-05 Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows Gündel, Sandra Looft, Christian Foldager, Leslie Thomsen, Peter T. Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science The dairy industry faces major challenges with high levels of lameness, in parallel to an increased consumer focus on animal welfare. This encourages farmers to consider more robust breeds, such as Jersey cows. As little is known about the behavior of this breed under loose housing conditions, the present study sought to describe the feeding behavior of lame and non-lame Jersey cows in different parities. Such breed-specific information of behavioral changes is needed for breed-specific herd management decisions and may contribute to identifying animals that are susceptible to developing lameness in the future, thus reducing impacts on the welfare and production of cows. Feeding data from 116 Danish Jersey cows were collected using automatic feeders, and lameness status was assessed by technicians every second week. The cows were kept in a loose housing system, with cubicles, a slatted concrete floor, and automatic milking robots. Eating time per visit and per day, the number of visits per day, and intervals between meals were analyzed using generalized linear mixed effects models. The effect of lameness was not significant for any variable. Primiparous Jersey cows had significantly longer eating times per day, shorter meal intervals, and a lower number of visits per day than older Jersey cows. Week in lactation affected the eating time per visit and per day, the number of visits, and between-meal intervals. In conclusion, we found no differences between lame and non-lame Jersey cows but between parities, which disagree with previous research on other breeds, suggesting that Jersey cows not just differ in size and looks but also in their behavioral reaction when lame. Although data from only one herd of a research center were used, this study has demonstrated the need for further research about breed-specific differences and their implications for the health and welfare of the animals. Frontiers Media S.A. 2022-09-20 /pmc/articles/PMC9530783/ /pubmed/36204289 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.980238 Text en Copyright © 2022 Gündel, Looft, Foldager and Thomsen. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Gündel, Sandra
Looft, Christian
Foldager, Leslie
Thomsen, Peter T.
Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows
title Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows
title_full Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows
title_fullStr Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows
title_full_unstemmed Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows
title_short Effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed Jersey dairy cows
title_sort effect of lameness on feeding behavior of zero grazed jersey dairy cows
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9530783/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36204289
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2022.980238
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