4b.5 the Occurrence of Abomasal Displacement in Dairy Cows Modified by the Weather Situation

The left-side displacement of the abomasum (DA) or the right-side DA with dilatation and / or torsion is a frequent pathological phenomenon not only due to the increment of animal production, but also to the increase in size of the dairy cow. In the dairy cows’ clinic the pathology’s diagnosis has become a daily routine (Geishauser, 1996, Geishauser et al., 1998). This pathology is responsible for the losses in production and income of the farms. Those take place not just due to direct loss, but also to the expenses with medicines and to the costs inherent to a more frequent veterinary intervention. The literature available explains well the pathology’s relation with delivery, milk drying period and with feeding and handling errors. However, there are no data establishing its relation with the occurrence of various weather situations (Dirksen, 1962; Geishauser, 1995; Martens, 2000; Massey and others, 1993). In Portugal, the indicators point to an increasing number of cases of abomasal displacement. This can be explained by a more efficient diagnosis by the veterinary surgeon, as well as by the increasing concern of producers with the pathology, which in turn entails better techniques of diagnosis. The purpose of this work is to study the possible effects of various weather situations, on the occurrence of abomasal displacement, over a certain period of time, independently of the other causes, which are well documented and studied in the literature. The objective was the question if the weather does influence the occurrence of DA. The weather situation was represented by various meteorological parameters. Beside the influence of these parameters on the occurrence of DA the temporal patterns of these parameters were used as a predictor for the DA. ______________ * Corresponding author address: Günther Schauberger, Institute of Medical Physics & Biostatistics, University of Veterinary Medicine, A 1210 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: [email protected] website: www-med-physik.vu-wien.ac.at The indirect influence of weather changes in some pathologies has been studied particularly by the Biometeorology International Society (Carvalho, 1999). This society has discussed the weather as a cause of several diseases in humans, e.g. respiratory and heart diseases, diseases of the autonomic nervous system, among others.