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Collaborative project: Evaluation of welfare in dairy cattle - indicators for metabolism and feeding - subproject 2 (Indikuh)
Project
Project code: 2817905815
Contract period: 01.08.2016
- 31.03.2020
Budget: 88,096 Euro
Purpose of research: Experimental development
Dairy cattle can experience metabolic problems like subacute rumen acidosis (SARA) or ketosis, which will both significantly limit animal welfare. At the same time, their safe detection is not easy to implement in the routines on a farm, in particular in case of SARA. In the project, potential indicators should be tested and the detection of metabolic problems should be improved by a combination of several indicators (with some emphasis on SARA). Besides 2 meta-analyses on SARA-indicators, a study on 10 farms involving 100 freshly lactating dairy cows was performed in the project. For these cows, besides ruminal pH (pH-Bolus) and ß-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA), several variables with potential as indicators for metabolic problems were quantified (like for SARA e.g. fat-protein-ratio in milk (FPR), spectrum of milk fatty acids via MIR, rumination behavior or faecal pH). In addition, a SARA-risk-score was established in the course of the project. Besides milk fat and FPR, rumination behavior was proven to have some potential as SARA indicator. However, it must be stated for the meta-analyses as for the farm study that prediction of ruminal-pH was limited to a moderate level, even if several indicators were combined. Concerning ketosis, FPR, mid-chain fatty acids and feeding time were found to have some potential as indicators. In addition, parity and the interaction parity*FPR were found be significantly related to ketosis (BHBA). In conclusion, several variables influenced by metabolic problems of cows could be proven or identified. However, to date even a combination of several significant indicators did not improve predictive power to a level completely satisfactory for application in practice. Besides other indicators, milk fatty acids may have some potential in the prediction of metabolic problems in farm routines.
Section overview
Subjects
- Animal health
- Animal nutrition
