Farm characteristics related to on-farm cow mortality in dairy herds: a questionnaire study

Alvåsen, Karin; Roth, A.; Mörk, Marie Jansson; Sandgren, Charlotte Hallén; Thomsen, Peter T.; Emanuelson, Ulf

doi:10.1017/s1751731114001633

Cited by 23 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 23 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Other similarities were found within several variables describing herd levels of disease and illness, operation facilities and biosecurity practices. These findings agree with previous studies outside of the United States that suggest that mortality may be associated with greater rates of common production diseases, as well as physiologic stress linked to intensive management practices such as animal crowding and feeding high levels of concentrate (Norgaard et al, 1999;Thomsen et al, 2007;Alvåsen et al, 2014). While the Dairy 2002 and 2007 surveys had similarities, the Dairy 2007 survey data set expanded upon the findings from the Dairy 2002 survey data and resulted in a unique final model.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

“…Rather, it highlights the continuum of health problems that can include these specific diseases and that indicate underlying management issues related to disease prevention. Although mastitis can predispose to other diseases such as metritis, displaced abomasums, ketosis and cystic ovaries (Gröhn et al, 2003), and infertility problems often follow such diseases (Harman et al, 1996;Gröhn and Rajala-Schultz, 2000), the issue at hand remains one of defining those specific management practices that eventuate in these poor outcomes including death (Alvåsen et al, 2014). Further, although culling lame and injured cows may preempt some individual cow deaths, a rise in such forced culling may be indicative of other underlying problems that eventuate in higher mortality levels.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Whereas traumatic reticuloperitonitis and hypocalcemia may be less of a problem with current management strategies, dystocia and accidents certainly remain problematic, and modern practices have given rise to a new set of concerns such as abomasal displacements, hemorrhagic bowel syndrome, lameness and multifactorial transition cow issues (McConnel et al, 2010). In fact, literature based on Scandinavian data suggests that high on-farm mortality is associated with characteristics specifically related to the intensification of dairy production systems (Norgaard et al, 1999;Alvåsen et al, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Herd factors associated with dairy cow mortality

McConnel

Lombard

Wagner

et al. 2015

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary studies of dairy cow removal indicate increasing levels of mortality over the past several decades. This poses a serious problem for the US dairy industry. The objective of this project was to evaluate associations between facilities, herd management practices, disease occurrence and death rates on US dairy operations through an analysis of the National Animal Health Monitoring System's Dairy 2007 survey. The survey included farms in 17 states that represented 79.5% of US dairy operations and 82.5% of the US dairy cow population. During the first phase of the study operations were randomly selected from a sampling list maintained by the National Agricultural Statistics Service. Only farms that participated in phase I and had 30 or more dairy cows were eligible to participate in phase II. In total, 459 farms had complete data for all selected variables and were included in this analysis. Univariable associations between dairy cow mortality and 162 a priori identified operation-level management practices or characteristics were evaluated. Sixty of the 162 management factors explored in the univariate analysis met initial screening criteria and were further evaluated in a multivariable model exploring more complex relationships. The final weighted, negative binomial regression model included six variables. Based on the incidence rate ratio, this model predicted 32.0% less mortality for operations that vaccinated heifers for at least one of the following: bovine viral diarrhea, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, parainfluenza 3, bovine respiratory syncytial virus, Haemophilus somnus, leptospirosis, Salmonella, Escherichia coli or clostridia. The final multivariable model also predicted a 27.0% increase in mortality for operations from which a bulk tank milk sample tested ELISA positive for bovine leukosis virus. Additionally, an 18.0% higher mortality was predicted for operations that used necropsies to determine the cause of death for some proportion of dead dairy cows. The final model also predicted that increased proportions of dairy cows with clinical mastitis and infertility problems were associated with increased mortality. Finally, an increase in mortality was predicted to be associated with an increase in the proportion of lame or injured permanently removed dairy cows. In general terms, this model identified that mortality was associated with reproductive problems, non-infectious postpartum disease, infectious disease and infectious disease prevention, and information derived from postmortem evaluations. Ultimately, addressing excessive mortality levels requires a concerted effort that recognizes and appropriately manages the numerous and diverse underlying risks.

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Herd factors associated with dairy cow mortality

McConnel

Lombard

Wagner

et al. 2015

Animal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Less intense production systems, lower animal density, and more time spent outdoors generally lead to higher animal welfare [59,60]. However, further research and improvements are needed to improve welfare in production systems considered more animal-friendly, as these sometimes have lower animal welfare than more conventional systems [60,61].…”

Section: Resource Utilization Within Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Synergies and Trade-Offs for Sustainable Food Production in Sweden: An Integrated Approach

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The production of food can have large impacts on sustainable development in relation to various socio-ecological dimensions, like climate change, the environment, animal welfare, livestock epidemiology, and the economy. To achieve a sustainable food production system in Sweden, an integrated approach that considers all five of these dimensions, and all parts of the food production chain, is necessary. This paper systematically reviewed the literature related to food production in Sweden, especially in association with resource distribution and recycling logistics, and identified potential sustainability interventions and assessed their effects according to the five dimensions. Participation of stakeholders across the food production chain contributed with the focus of the literature search and subsequent synthesis. In general, there were synergies between the sustainability interventions and their effect on climate change and the environment, while there often were trade-offs between effects on the economy and the other dimensions. Few interventions considered effects on animal welfare or livestock epidemiology and few studies dealt with resource distribution and recycling logistics. This indicates that there is a need for future research that considers this in particular, as well as research that considers the whole food production chain and all dimensions at once, and investigates effects across multiple scales.

show abstract

“…According to EFSA (Anon., 2009d), access to pasture reduces the risk for hoof diseases, lameness, teat tramping, mastitis, acute metritis, dystocia, ketosis, retained placenta and various bacterial infections. Danish and Swedish studies have also shown a reduced mortality risk in herds with more pasture access (Thomsen et al, 2007;Burow et al, 2011;Alvåsen et al, 2014). There is evidence that cattle prefer access to pasture, but this preference depends on the time of day and the weather conditions; cattle avoid bright sunshine and high temperatures (Legrand et al, 2009;Charlton et al, 2013).…”

Section: Confinement and Restricted Movementmentioning

confidence: 99%