Technical note: Comparison of rectal and vaginal temperatures in lactating dairy cows

Abstract

A method commonly used to identify illness in dairy cows is measuring body temperatures with a rectal thermometer, but vaginal measures are becoming common in research. The primary objective of this study was to validate vaginal measures of body temperature by comparing them with rectal temperatures. Data loggers used to collect vaginal temperatures can be programmed to collect many readings per day, providing an opportunity to interpret effects of health in relation to diurnal differences in temperatures. Thus, a secondary objective was to compare the diurnal pattern in body temperatures for cows with and without retained placenta (RP). Body temperature was monitored for 8 d in 29 cows that had recently calved (enrolled 2 d after calving; 7 of these cows were diagnosed with RP) and in 13 cows in peak lactation (98±8 d in milk). Rectal temperatures were taken at 0630, 0930, 1230, 1530, 1830, and 2130h (±30 min) with a digital thermometer for 8 d consecutively. During the same period, vaginal temperatures were measured every 10 min with a microprocessor-controlled data logger attached to a modified vaginal controlled internal drug release insert. Values from the vaginal loggers were averaged over 1h and paired with the corresponding rectal temperature. There was a relationship between rectal and vaginal temperatures for fresh cows (n=1,393; r=0.81) and for peak-lactation cows (n=556; r=0.46). Cows with RP had higher body temperatures (39.2±0.01) compared with healthy cows (39.1±0.01). Body temperature was higher at night, and lower between 0800 to 1000 h for healthy cows (39.0±0.02) and between 1100 to 1300 h for RP cows (39.1±0.02). In summary, vaginal temperatures were associated with rectal measures, and provided the advantage of capturing dirurnal changes in body temperature.

Thermophysiological study in lactating and dry camels (Camelus<br>dromedarius) under summer conditions

“…According to this definition, it appears that lactating camels are more thermally labile than dry camels. This finding is consistent with the previous studies on dairy cattle which reported that body temperatures of early and/or late lactating dairy cattle are higher than dry cattle (Araki et al, 1984;El-Nouty et al, 1990;Vickers et al, 2010).…”

“…These observation emphasize that milking can alleviate the environmental heat stress in dairy cattle. Numerous studies have monitored the circadian rhythm of body temperature in lactating and dry dairy cattle in their natural habitat (Araki et al, 1984;Al-Haidary, 2000;Vickers et al, 2010). Unfortunately, however, the circadian rhythm of body temperature in dairy camels has not been defined.…”

Physiological and behavioural response of two dairy cows&#8217; genotypes during summertime in the central region of Chile

“…The difference of TT between the morning vs. afternoon is in agreement with those reported by Vickers et al (2010), who measured vaginal temperatures of dairy cows. But differs from those reported by Aharoni et al (2005) who found no differences for rectal temperatures and RR.…”

Development of a self-contained, indwelling vaginal temperature probe for use in cattle research

“…Changes in body temperature have been reported to be valuable measurements of the febrile response to an LPS challenge in cattle, and are indices routinely used to monitor the severity of the inflammatory response (Elsasser et al, 1996;Bieniek et al, 1998;Jacobsen et al, 2005;Borderas et al, 2008;Reuter et al, 2008;Carroll et al, 2009;Waggoner et al, 2009a, b). The correlations achieved between rectal and vaginal temperature in the current study are higher than those previously reported in Holstein cows postpartum (r ¼0.81; P o0.001), in postpartum cows with retained placenta (r ¼0.75; Po0.001), or during peak lactation (r¼ 0.46; Po0.001; Vickers et al, 2010) as well as those reported in pregnant dairy cows (r ¼0.95; Hillman et al, 2009). However, Vickers et al (2010) and Hillman et al (2009) used hand-held thermometers to measure rectal temperature, unlike the current study in which rectal and vaginal temperatures were measured using indwelling temperature measuring devices simultaneously in the same animal.…”