Farm managers underestimated lameness prevalence in Argentine dairy farms

LAZZARINI, B.; ALESSO C.A.; CORDOBA, M.; LLONCH OBIOLS, P.; DEMARCHI, E.; BAUDRACCO, J.

Congreso; 46º Congreso Argentino de Producción Animal; 2023

IntroductionLameness in dairy cows is one of the most important diseases affecting animal welfare, health, longevity, productivity and profit (Jensen et al., 2022). One of theprincipal barriers to tackling lameness is misperception orunderestimation of the problem (Sarova et al., 2011).Proper identification of lameness would contribute toimproving the health of dairy cows. Locomotion scoring, thatis, scoring the gait of an animal (conducted by a trainedobserver), is a common method used to identify lameness indairy herds.The objective of this study was to compare the lamenessprevalence estimated by farm managers with that estimatedby a trained observer using locomotion scoring.Materials and MethodsIn total, 882 lactating cows from 12 dairy farms werelocomotion-scored by a trained observer using a four-pointvisual scale from 0 to 3 (Barker et al., 2010); cows with scoresof 2 and 3 were considered lame. The proportion of cowsscored on each farm (herd sample) was calculated accordingto the sampling methodology of the WQ protocol (WelfareQuality®, 2009). Ten farms were located in Santa fe province,one in Entre Rios province and one in Cordoba province. Halfof the farms had Holstein Friesian cows, while the rest hadcrossbred cows (HF x Jersey).In addition to locomotion scoring, farm managers(personnel involved in day-to-day farm tasks) wereinterviewed face-to-face about the lameness prevalence onthat day. Interviews and locomotion scoring were conductedon the same day on each farm.The lameness prevalence assessed by the trainedobserver (OP) was calculated as the number of cows detectedlame divided by the herd sample. The prevalence estimatedby the farm managers (FP) was calculated as the number ofcows that they identified lame divided by the herd size.The prevalence of lameness estimated by the farmmanagers and the prevalence assessed by the trainedobserver was compared using a paired T-test with thesoftware R Core Team (2022). A P value of < 0.05 wasconsidered to indicate statistical significance.Results and DiscussionThe mean and standard errors of FP and OP for the 12farms are shown in Figure 1. On average, farm managersestimated a lower (P