Effect of health disorders on culling in dairy cows: a review and critical discussion

Risk of culling consequent to the main health disorders occurring in the current production systems are reviewed. Survival analysis models including health disorders as time-dependent variables are deemed to be the most appropriate to assess their effects because they allow a better description of the exact follow-up of disease history. Farmers preferentially consider health events in the current lactation and/or those occurring in early stages of lactation for making culling decisions. The unfavourable direct effects on culling of dystocia and udder disorders (mastitis and teat injuries) are clearly demonstrated, whereas there are discrepancies on the association between metabolic and reproductive disorders and culling. These discrepancies may be due to differences in study designs, populations involved and methods. Metabolic and reproductive disorders may act indirectly through a subsequent decrease in milk yield and reproductive performance. The impact of health disorders on longevity is on average weak, compared to the impact of low milk yield potential and poor reproductive performance. Herd characteristics (availability in heifers, quota, farmer’s attitude towards risk and uncertainty...) modify the risk for a cow to be culled for a given health disorder. Consequences of including or not in the models descriptors on milk yield and/or reproductive performance from the last known lactation are discussed. Aims of further studies in this area could be (1) to interpret the meaning and to analyse the reliability of culling reasons information, (2) to evaluate the relative effect on culling of health disorders and performance (milk yield and reproduction) in different parities, (3) to investigate the role of components of the herd effect on the risk of culling.