POSTER PRESENTATIONS Animal Behavior and Well-Being: Livestock

Rubber flooring in dairies has become popular because of perceived cow comfort. The objective of this longitudinal study was to evaluate locomotion, stress, and immunity over the first 180d of each of the 1st and 2nd lactations of cows assigned to free-stall housing with either rubber (RUB) or concrete (CON) at the feed-alley of their housing. Cows entered the experiment at d −60 before 1st (n = 30) lactation and were observed over 2 lactations. Between lactations cows remained in a straw bedded-pack dry-cow pen. Locomotion scores and blood samples were obtained at approximately −60, −30, 0, +7 and weekly through d +189 relative to calving throughout 2 lactations. Data were analyzed as a completely randomized design with repeated measures. Chi Square analysis was used to evaluate hoof pathologies. Cortisol responses were only affected by d (P = 0.05). White blood cell (WBC) counts increased for CON cows compared with RUB cows after d 63 through 182. WBC counts returned to similar counts of RUB cows over the dry period, but quickly became greater than those of CON cows after parturition (9.0, 9.5, and 7.8, and 11.0, 8.8, and 13.0 × 106 cells/mL for RUB and CON cows at d 142, parturition, and d 142 of 2nd lactation; treatment by d interaction, P < 0.01). Neutrophil counts only tended to be affected by d (P = 0.10) and a weak trend (P = 0.13) for a treatment by d interaction was detected. Lymphocyte counts followed the pattern of WBC counts, but only had a trend (P = 0.08) for a treatment by d effect (4.9, 5.1, and 5.3, and 6.8, 5.1, and 8.4 × 106 cells/mL for RUB and CON cows at d 142, parturition, and d 142 of 2nd lactation; treatment by d interaction, P < 0.01). Monocytes counts were not affected by treatment or time (P > 0.10). Haptoglobin (treatment by d interaction, P = 0.15) and ceruloplasmin (week effect, P = 0.08) were not affected by treatment. Hoof pathology was different by number of treatments that were required (RUB = 2.1 and CON = 1.4; P = 0.03). Lame and sound classifications were not different between treatments (P = 0.13). These data show that flooring affected cow hoof and leg health and altered immune cell counts, which may indicate an underlying chronic inflammation.