Association of Lameness Prevalence and Severity in Early-Lactation Cows with Milk Traits, Metabolic Profile, and Dry Period

Vigilijus Jukna, Edita Meškinytė, Gediminas Urbonavičius, Ronaldas Bilskis, Ramūnas Antanaitis (), Lina Kajokienė and Vida Juozaitienė ()
Additional contact information
Vigilijus Jukna: Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto St. 10A, Akademija, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania
Edita Meškinytė: Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto St. 10A, Akademija, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania
Gediminas Urbonavičius: Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto St. 10A, Akademija, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ronaldas Bilskis: Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto St. 10A, Akademija, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania
Ramūnas Antanaitis: 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
Vida Juozaitienė: Agriculture Academy, Vytautas Magnus University, Universiteto St. 10A, Akademija, LT-53361 Kaunas, Lithuania

Agriculture, 2024, vol. 14, issue 11, 1-12

Abstract: This study investigated the prevalence and severity of lameness in dairy cow herds, focusing on its relationship with milk traits, metabolic profile, and dry period management. Lameness was evaluated in 4221 multiparous Holstein dairy cows during early lactation (up to 60 days postpartum) using a 1-to-5 scale. The average lameness score was 1.67, with a prevalence of 10.66% (scores 3 to 5) and 4.55% classified as severe (scores 4 to 5). Severe lameness was associated with energy-corrected milk losses of −11.00 kg/day ( p < 0.001) and a decrease in milk lactose concentration by −0.16 percentage points ( p < 0.001), alongside a rise in somatic cell scores by +0.11. The incidence of cows with a milk fat-to-protein ratio below 1.2 increased by 21.7 percentage points, while those with a ratio above 1.4 rose by 19.1 percentage points as lameness worsened. Additionally, non-esterified fatty acid concentrations increased by 1.46 times as lameness severity intensified ( p < 0.001). Cows without lameness had blood cortisol levels 1.86 times lower than affected cows, with cortisol tripling in those with the highest scores. A dry period of 30 to 60 days was correlated with more healthy cows, whereas periods over 90 days resulted in 1.586 times higher odds of lameness ( p < 0.05). This research underscores the need for improved management strategies to enhance dairy cow welfare and productivity.

Keywords: dairy cows; lameness; dry periods; milk; somatic cell count; metabolic profile (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: 2024
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/11/2030/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/14/11/2030/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:14:y:2024:i:11:p:2030-:d:1518779

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().