Effect of prepartum behavioral activity on stillbirth in transition dairy heifers and cows

S. BAS; M. PIÑEIRO; G.M. SCHUENEMANN; A.A. BARRAGAN; A. E. RELLING; B.T. MENICHETTI

Pittsburgh

Congreso; 2017 American Dairy Science Association® Annual Meeting; 2017

The objective of this study was to assess the effect of pre-partum behavioral activity on stillbirth in transition dairy heifers and cows. A behavioral activity index (BAI) was computed for every animal taking intoaccount the number of steps (no./d), standing time (min/d), lying time(min/d), and lying bouts (LB, no./d). A total of 387 Holstein dairy cows(110 primiparous and 277 multiparous) in 3 commercial dairy herds wereenrolled at 7 d before calving until 14 d post-calving. Weekly, a cohortof 10 to 15 heifers and cows were enrolled at each farm, and electronic data loggers (IceQube, IceRobotics, Edinburgh, UK) were fited to thehind leg of individual animals to assess their behavioral activity. Prepartum heifers and cows were moved into prepartum pens 21 d beforethe expected calving date. All heifers and cows were housed in similarprepartum free-stall barns and moved into a contiguous individualmaternity pen for parturition. Stillbirth was defied as a calf born deador died within 24 h after birth, and with normal gestation length. TheBAI was computed for the last 7 d before parturition to assess differencesamong primiparous and multiparous cows. Data were analyzed usingMIXED procedure of SAS. Primiparous cows (P < 0.05) had greaterBAI compared with multiparous cows, and as cows mature (multiparous), they become less active around parturition. Regardless of parity,cows with a stillborn calf had less pre-partum lying time (10.5 h/d; P <0.05) at calving compared with cows with a calf born alive (12.15 h/d).Primiparous cows with a stillborn calf at calving had a greater prepartumBAI (P < 0.05) with similar lying time before calving compared withprimiparous cows with calves born alive. Multiparous cows that had astillborn calf at calving have reduced lying time (P < 0.05) with similarBAI before calving compared with multiparous cows with calves bornalive. These results suggest that monitoring a combination of pre-partumbehavioral metrics, such as lying time and BAI, could be used to predictstillborn calves in transition heifers and cows.