Gait assessment in dairy cattle

Gait assessment in dairy cattle.

Lameness is one of the most important dairy cow welfare issues and has inspired a growing body of literature on gait assessment. Validation studies have shown that several methods of gait assessment are able to successfully distinguish cows with and without painful pathologies. While subjective methods provide an immediate, on-site assessment and require no technical equipment, they show variat...

Lameness in Dairy Cattle – New Research on Gait and Housing

This paper reviews recent research on lameness in dairy cows, with special focus on our work at the University of British Columbia addressing the scientific assessment of impaired gait, and how such impairments can be prevented through improvements in housing. Subjective gait scores can vary considerably between observers, but the reliability of these scores can be much improved with training a...

Neosporosis in dairy cattle.

Inbreeding in Dairy Cattle

Inbreeding is defined as half of the genetic relationship between an animal’s parents. For example, the offspring from a mating of animals A and B, which have the same father, will have 12.5 percent inbreeding, because the genetic relationship between A and B is 25 percent. Statistical methods to select the best sires of each generation have been developed, making it feasible to achieve any pos...

Longevity in Dairy Cattle

Longevity of productive life in dairy cattle is a characteristic difficult to evaluate. This measurement is complicated, in part, because the phenotype is expressed late in the life of the animal, but also because the methods of evaluation are complex. The molecular bases of longevity are still far from being fully understood, although some genes begin to be associated with this characteristic....