The welfare impact of birth on newborn calves has rarely been studied. Dystocia in particular may have significant welfare costs for calves. While analgesia is sometimes provided to calves born to difficult parturition by veterinary surgeons in practice, it is not known if this is actually beneficial. On a commercial dairy farm, we examined the behavioural time budget of 39 Holstein heifer calves born with the aid of farmer assistance and 36 calves born without assistance; half of each group were randomly allocated to receive either a single dose of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug ketoprofen or a saline placebo in a two by two factorial design. The calves were group housed and their behaviour was recorded for 48 hours postpartum and analysed using instantaneous focal sampling (every 5 minutes in alternate hours). Regardless of analgesic treatment, calves born with assistance showed behaviours consistent with experiencing a less positive welfare state (lying with their head down and in lateral recumbency, and less time playing than unassisted calves). Behavioural differences between calves treated with ketoprofen and calves treated with saline (in particular increased play) suggest that the birth experience may be painful for all calves, even if no assistance is required. Our findings suggest that a single dose of ketoprofen in the immediate postpartum period may improve calf welfare regardless of assistance status and has the potential to contribute to significant welfare gains in dairy calves.

Dystocia is considered painful and stressful for both the dam and the calf, although systematic evidence of this is limited. Few studies have investigated biochemical markers of stress and pain postpartum and whether any adverse effects are ameliorated by administration of analgesia. In this study, cow-calf pairs experiencing both mild to moderate farmer assistance and no assistance at parturition were randomly assigned to either treatment or placebo group in a two-by-two design (animals subject to veterinary intervention were excluded). The treatments were the NSAID ketoprofen or saline, administered within three hours of parturition. Blood samples taken in the immediate postpartum period, and at 24 hours, 48 hours and 7 days after parturition, were analysed for plasma concentrations of creatine kinase and cortisol (cows and calves) and plasma L-lactate and total protein concentration (calves). Stress biomarkers were highest in the immediate postpartum period and declined over time (P<0.05). Cow plasma cortisol was higher in animals experiencing assisted parturition in the immediate postpartum period (P=0.023); by 24 hours no difference was evident. Intervention with NSAID analgesia did not result in beneficial changes in stress biomarkers. Based on biomarkers alone, this suggests limited benefits of NSAID treatment in unassisted or mild to moderately assisted parturition.

Background and case presentationA three year old, second lactation Holstein dairy cow presented to the Scottish Centre for Production Animal Health and Food Safety, Glasgow University Veterinary School in November 2014 with a history of post-calving vulval/vaginal bleeding nine days prior to presentation, followed by a sudden reduction in milk yield. Subsequent investigations resulted in a diagnosis of immune-mediated haemolytic anaemia secondary to infection with Mycoplasma wenyonii. ConclusionThis report of a novel presentation of Mycoplasma wenyonii in a dairy cow illustrates the need to consider M.wenyonii as a potential differential diagnosis when a cow presents with anaemia and will discuss the potential implications of the condition at herd-level.

A 20-month-old Simmental cross bull presented to the Scottish Centre for Production Animal Health and Food Safety, University of Glasgow School of Veterinary Medicine, in April 2015 with multiple congenital ocular abnormalities including bilateral microphthalmia. We present this case as an interesting presentation of idiopathic multiple congenital ocular abnormalities in the absence of congenital abnormalities affecting other body systems. This case highlights an unusual ocular presentation and illustrates the importance of a thorough clinical examination. The prognosis for cases of multiple congenital ocular abnormalities including microphthalmia is poor as no treatment is available and welfare is often compromised. It is therefore important that cases are accurately diagnosed so appropriate management decisions can be made regarding the individual and any herd investigations that are required can be instigated.

Traditionally, the welfare assessment of farm animals has focused on health and production outcomes. Positive welfare is, however, not merely the absence of negative welfare and is an important part of a life worth living. Play behaviour is widely considered to be an indicator of positive emotions because it is a “luxury” behaviour. Direct visual observation is considered the most accurate method of behavioural analysis, but it is time consuming and laborious. There is increasing interest in the use of remote monitoring technology to quantify behaviour. We compared the data output (“motion index” (MI)) from a commercially available tri-axial accelerometer fitted to newborn dairy calves to video footage of the same calves, with a focus on play behaviour. The motion index values over 48 h were positively correlated with both the duration of play behaviour and the number of play bouts. The motion index threshold in each sample interval with the optimal sensitivity and specificity for the identification of play behaviour was MI ≥ 2.5 at a 1 min resolution (sensitivity (Se) = 98.0%; specificity (Sp) = 92.9%) and MI ≥ 24.5 at a 15 min resolution (Se = 98.0%; Sp = 89.9%), but these values consistently overestimated the overall proportion of sample intervals in which play was observed. The MI that best reflected the results obtained from visual one-zero sampling was MI ≥ 23 for 1 min intervals and MI ≥ 62 for 15 min intervals—this may therefore be the basis of a more conservative approach to the identification of play behaviour from accelerometer-generated data. Our results indicate that accelerometer-generated data can usefully indicate the amount of play behaviour shown by newborn calves for up to 48 h, providing an efficient method for identifying this important parameter in future work.