Feeding behaviour and activity as early indicators of disease in pre-weaned dairy calves

Duthie, Carol-Anne; Bowen, J M; Dj, Bell; Miller, G A; Mason, Colin; Haskell, Marie J.

doi:10.1016/j.animal.2020.100150

Cited by 41 publications

(33 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…In this study we observed that calves deviated from their baseline unrewarded visits as early as 4 d before BRD diagnosis, and these findings broadly agreed with the literature (Svensson and Jensen, 2007;Johnston et al, 2016;Knauer et al, 2017;Duthie et al, 2021). Indeed, Duthie et al (2021), who offered higher milk allotments to calves and had a similar stocking density to our study found that BRD calves declined their unrewarded visits at −3 d before BRD diagnosis, which was similar to our findings. Unrewarded visits are a nonnutritive behavior, and this behavior has been associated with hunger (De Paula Vieira et al, 2008).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

“…For example, the only milk intake differences observed for studies offering calves 7 L/d or less was on the day of disease diagnosis (Swartz et al, 2016;Borderas et al, 2009;Johnston et al, 2016). Others, who offered calves milk ad libitum either observed no association of BRD status with milk intake , observed reduced milk intakes at 1 d before diagnosis (Duthie et al, 2021), or observed reduced milk intake only on the day of disease diagnosis (Borderas et al, 2009). Thus, we hypothesize that it is possible that milk intake differences among studies are partially explained by different milk feeding strategies.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

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Daily behavioral measures recorded by precision technology devices may indicate bovine respiratory disease status in preweaned dairy calves

Cantor

Costa

2022

Journal of Dairy Science

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Precision technology devices can measure and detect relative changes in an animal's behavior to possibly create alerts to intervene and to administer treatments. However, the association of relative changes in daily feeding and activity behaviors in calves with bovine respiratory disease (BRD) status is still largely unexplored. The objective of this case-control study was to determine if daily behavioral patterns of preweaning dairy calves (measured by precision technologies) change before BRD diagnosis. This case-control study enrolled 33 pairs of calves (33 BRD calves matched by age, sex, and birthdate to 33 controls) health scored daily for BRD for the preweaning period (until 50 d on the automated feeder). A pedometer (IceQube, Ice Robotics) was attached to the left rear leg to track activity (lying time, lying bouts, total steps, and acceleration activity index). At 3.0 ± 2.0 d of age, calves were trained to use the automated feeder, which recorded milk and calf starter intake, drinking speed, and feeder visits. Calves were allotted a maximum 10 L/d of milk replacer (Cow's Match, Land O'Lakes Animal Milk Products Co.; 140 g/L) and starter (Special Calf Starter and Grower, Baghdad Feeds), ad libitum. Calves were scored daily for signs of BRD using the Wisconsin scoring system, and their lungs were scored with ultrasonography twice weekly. Outward signs of BRD as defined by the Wisconsin scoring system and an area of consolidated lung ≥3.0 cm 2 was identified as BRD (d 0). Relative changes in daily behaviors were calculated using d −5 before BRD diagnosis as the baseline for each calf for each behavior. Linear mixed models were used to investigate the association of BRD status with feeding behaviors, activity, and relative changes in calf behavior over a 5-d period before diagnosis, as well as the BRD status × day interaction. Calves with a BRD bout were diagnosed at an average age of 33.0 ± 9.0 d (mean ± standard deviation) and weighed 56.1 ± 9.7 kg. Over the period, BRD calves had reduced milk and starter intake, greater lying times, and fewer lying bouts, step counts, and activity indices when compared with healthy calves. Furthermore, there was a BRD status × day interaction for relative changes in unrewarded visits, and relative changes in calf starter intake. Specifically, BRD calves had a decline in relative changes in their unrewarded visits on d −4, −2, −1, and 0 compared with healthy calves. This study suggests that there is the potential to use feeding and activity behaviors to identify BRD development in preweaning calves. However, utilization of an animals' daily behavioral patterns in real time is fundamental for developing disease detection algorithms, thus we suggest relative changes in unrewarded visits may be useful for algorithm development when d −5 is used as a baseline. Future research should investigate the potential of feeding behavior and activity levels collectively to indicate BRD status in calves using machine learning techniques.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 97%

Daily behavioral measures recorded by precision technology devices may indicate bovine respiratory disease status in preweaned dairy calves

Cantor

Costa

2022

Journal of Dairy Science

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“…Another cause for this finding may be linked to a reduced ability of staff to identify ill calves early in the disease course when housed in groups rather than individually. It is possible to identify sick calves in group pens through signs such as longer lying times and reduced activity (Duthie et al, 2021) but this requires high levels of attention to detail by stock people. This highlights an area where staff training could be improved, with selection of appropriate communication strategies by veterinary advisors to engage farmers (Jansen et al, 2010b), and then helping to establish calf management tools such as treatment plans and checklists (Jansen et al, 2010a).…”

Section: Farmer Perceptions Of Calf Housingmentioning

confidence: 99%

A survey of calf management practices and farmer perceptions of calf housing in UK dairy herds

Mahendran

Wathes

Booth

et al. 2022

Journal of Dairy Science

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Adoption of optimal management techniques for rearing dairy calves has significant effects on their health, welfare, and productivity. Despite much published literature on best practice, calf morbidity and mortality rates remain high. This survey aimed to establish current calf management practices in the United Kingdom, along with farmer perceptions surrounding different housing types. A survey containing 48 questions was distributed online to UK farmers via social media, online forums, and a convenience sample of veterinary practices and was completed by 216 participants. A descriptive analysis with frequency distributions was calculated, with chi-squared tests, linear regression and multinomial regression performed to assess associations between variables. There was a low level of regular veterinary involvement in day-to-day health decision making for calves (3/216, 1.4%), highlighting the need for appropriate staff training and standard operating procedures to ensure prudent antimicrobial usage. Restricted calf milk feeding remains highly prevalent in the United Kingdom, with most calves fed milk replacer (114/216, 52.8%), twice daily (189/216, 87.5%), initially given milk at 4 L/d (66/216, 30.6%) or 6 L/d (47/216, 21.8%). There was, however, a small number of farmers initially feeding only 2 to 3 L/d (28/216, 13.0%). Euthanasia of bull calves (5/216, 2.3%) and feeding antimicrobial waste milk to calves (8/216, 3.7%) both occurred on some farms. With regard to housing, use of individual calf pens has reduced from around 60% in 2010 to 38.4% in this study (83/216), with this reduction being partly driven by the policy of UK milk buyers. Farmer perceptions indicated that individual housing was thought to help to improve calf health and feed monitoring of calves, suggesting that successful use of group housing requires a higher level of stockmanship. The majority of farmers did not provide fresh bedding to calves on a daily basis (141/216, 65.3%), and relatively few disinfected both the calf housing (38.0%) and ground (47.7%) between calves, suggesting that hygiene practices may require additional attention in farm management protocols.

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“…The application of machine vision and other sensor technologies, collecting data from machines, buildings and animals to provide early warning of anomalous events in real-time for management decision support is known as precision livestock farming (PLF) [ 6 , 7 ]. Potential applications of PLF have been researched in the major livestock species including fish [ 8 ] poultry [ 9 ], sheep [ 10 ], cattle [ 11 ] and pigs [ 12 ].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes in tail posture detected by a 3D machine vision system are associated with injury from damaging behaviours and ill health on commercial pig farms

D’Eath

Foister²,

Jack

et al. 2021

PLoS ONE

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To establish whether pig tail posture is affected by injuries and ill health, a machine vision system using 3D cameras to measure tail angle was used. Camera data from 1692 pigs in 41 production batches of 42.4 (±16.6) days in length over 17 months at seven diverse grower/finisher commercial pig farms, was validated by visiting farms every 14(±10) days to score injury and ill health. Linear modelling of tail posture found considerable farm and batch effects. The percentage of tails held low (0°) or mid (1–45°) decreased over time from 54.9% and 23.8% respectively by -0.16 and -0.05%/day, while tails high (45–90°) increased from 21.5% by 0.20%/day. Although 22% of scored pigs had scratched tails, severe tail biting was rare; only 6% had tail wounds and 5% partial tail loss. Adding tail injury to models showed associations with tail posture: overall tail injury, worsening tail injury, and tail loss were associated with more pigs detected with low tail posture and fewer with high tails. Minor tail injuries and tail swelling were also associated with altered tail posture. Unexpectedly, other health and injury scores had a larger effect on tail posture- more low tails were observed when a greater proportion of pigs in a pen were scored with lameness or lesions caused by social aggression. Ear injuries were linked with reduced high tails. These findings are consistent with the idea that low tail posture could be a general indicator of poor welfare. However, effects of flank biting and ocular discharge on tail posture were not consistent with this. Our results show for the first time that perturbations in the normal time trends of tail posture are associated with tail biting and other signs of adverse health/welfare at diverse commercial farms, forming the basis for a decision support system.

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Feeding behaviour and activity as early indicators of disease in pre-weaned dairy calves

Cited by 41 publications

References 22 publications

Daily behavioral measures recorded by precision technology devices may indicate bovine respiratory disease status in preweaned dairy calves

Daily behavioral measures recorded by precision technology devices may indicate bovine respiratory disease status in preweaned dairy calves

A survey of calf management practices and farmer perceptions of calf housing in UK dairy herds

Changes in tail posture detected by a 3D machine vision system are associated with injury from damaging behaviours and ill health on commercial pig farms

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