Impact of Calving Difficulty on Lameness in Dairy Cows

Dovilė Malašauskienė, Ramūnas Antanaitis, Vida Juozaitienė, Algimantas Paulauskas, Gediminas Urbonavičius, Mindaugas Televičius, Mingaudas Urbutis, Lina Kajokienė, Ayhan Yilmaz and Walter Baumgartner
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Dovilė Malašauskienė: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ramūnas Antanaitis: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Vida Juozaitienė: Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaičio 58, LT-44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
Algimantas Paulauskas: Department of Biology, Faculty of Natural Sciences, Vytautas Magnus University, K. Donelaičio 58, LT-44248 Kaunas, Lithuania
Gediminas Urbonavičius: Department of Animal Breeding, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Mindaugas Televičius: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Mingaudas Urbutis: Large Animal Clinic, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Lina Kajokienė: Institute of Biology Systems and Genetic Research, Veterinary Academy, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Tilžės Str 18, LT-47181 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ayhan Yilmaz: Department of Animal Sciences, Faculty of Agriculture, Siirt University, Kezer Yerleşkesi Veysel Karani Mah. Üniversite Cad. No:1, Merkez, 56100 Siirt, Turkey
Walter Baumgartner: University Clinic for Ruminants, University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinaerplatz 1, A-1210 Vienna, Austria

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 12, issue 7, 1-11

Abstract: The aims of our study were to evaluate the associations between calving difficulty and lameness and their effects on milk yield and quality traits. A total of 4723 calving cases were evaluated for calving difficulty using a 4-point scoring system. Lameness was diagnosed with a visual locomotion score system from 1 to 30 days after calving in 333 fresh dairy cows. Cows were divided into non-lame cows and lame cows. Milk quality traits were registered using Lely Astronaut ® A3 milking robots. The normal distribution of all indicators was assessed using the Shapiro–Wilk normality test. Normally distributed milk indicators were expressed as mean ± standard error of the mean. Differences between the mean values of their groups were determined using the Fisher’s least significant difference test. We categorized cows by health status, i.e., lame (LA) and non-lame (HL) cows, and according to calving difficulty (CD) (on a 4-point scale: 1—no problem, 2—slight problem, 3—problems requiring assistance, 4—considerable force and extreme difficulty). In the present study, calving difficulty increased the risk of lameness in cows by 2.09-fold (95% CI = 1.644–2.650, p < 0.001). It was found that the mean standard milk yield in fresh dairy cows with calving difficulty was lower (−6.14 kg, p < 0.001) than in the group where no assistance was required at calving. Similarly, herd affected milk fat (%) and the calving process—herd and the interaction between calving difficulty and herd—and lameness impacted the quantity of milk protein and lactose in cows. We found that severe lameness (3–4 points) (3.88–5.92% of cows) became more prevalent in those cows that had dystocia than those that did not (0.27–2.37% of cows).

Keywords: calving difficulty; fresh dairy cows; lameness; milk composition (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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