BIOSECURITY ▶▶▶
Poor hygiene in cows is associat- ed with an in- creased occur- rence of disease such as environ- mental mastitis.
Very clean cows had the lowest SCLS Monthly hygiene evaluations were conducted on the lactating cows in the two dairy farms for nine consecutive months, total- ling 3,554 evaluations from 545 animals. Hygiene was meas- ured using a 4-point scoring system (very clean, clean, dirty, and very dirty) for four areas of the animal’s body (leg, flank, abdomen, and udder) and combining these scores to generate a composite cleanliness score. A total of 2,218 milk samples was analysed from 404 cows to determine SCC and somatic cell linear scores (SCLS). Individual variation was observed in the hygiene of cows throughout the year, with the highest propor- tion of clean cows being observed in August and the lowest in January. In spite of this seasonal variation, approximately half (55.62%) of the cows displayed consistent cleanliness scores, with 45.86% of them remaining consistently clean (very clean or clean) and 9.76% remaining dirty (very dirty or dirty) over the course of the study. The very clean cows had the lowest SCLS, followed by the clean, dirty, and very dirty cows (no sta- tistically significant differences were found between the latter two groups). The most critical months for cow hygiene were those with the greatest rainfall, when a reduction in the welfare of cows and higher SCC values were observed.
14 ▶DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 6, No. 2, 2019
Conclusions The most critical periods for the maintenance of hygiene in cows not housed in stalls are those with higher rainfall, as these periods result in greater difficulty in milking manage- ment and increases in milk SCC. Considering the economic losses due to high SCC and the increase in the risk of mastitis, the establishment of management procedures to control the hygiene of cows is recommended to reduce losses and im- prove the welfare of dairy cows. The first step is to evaluate the hygiene of cows, which can be done with the regular use of cleanliness scores. Due to the association of cleanliness of the leg and udder with increases in the risk of udder disease, the researchers recommend recording the presence of small quantities of dirt on the udder. For the legs, however, only in the case of a large accumulation of dirt would it be necessary to intervene, because these parameters presented the greatest risk to udder health in this study.
This article is a summary of the original paper: The relationship between dairy cow hygiene and somatic cell count in milk, published in the August, 2011 edition of Journal of Dairy Science.
PHOTO: PETER ROEK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
