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Heat stress effects on Holstein dairy cows’ rumination

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 May 2017

R. Moretti ,
S. Biffani ,
S. Chessa  and
R. Bozzi
R. Moretti*
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Agroalimentari e dell’Ambiente, Università di Firenze, Firenze, 50144, Italy
S. Biffani
Affiliation:
Istituto di Biologia e Biotecnologia Agraria (IBBA-CNR), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Lodi, 26900, Italy
S. Chessa
Affiliation:
Istituto di Biologia e Biotecnologia Agraria (IBBA-CNR), Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Lodi, 26900, Italy
R. Bozzi
Affiliation:
Dipartimento di Scienze delle Produzioni Agroalimentari e dell’Ambiente, Università di Firenze, Firenze, 50144, Italy
*
†E-mail: riccardo.moretti@unifi.it
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Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between temperature–humidity index (THI) and rumination time (RT) in order to possibly exploit it as a useful tool for animal welfare improvement. During summer 2015 (1 June to 31 August), data from an Italian Holstein dairy farm located in the North of Italy were collected along with environmental data (i.e. ambient temperature and relative humidity) recorded with a weather station installed inside the barn. Rumination data were collected through the Heatime® HR system (SCR Engineers Ltd., Hadarim, Netanya, Israel), an automatic system composed of a neck collar with a Tag that records the RT and activity of each cow. A significant negative correlation was observed between RT and THI. Mixed linear models were fitted, including animal and test day as random effects, and parity, milk production level and date of last calving as fixed effects. A statistically significant effect of THI on RT was identified, with RT decreasing as THI increased.

Keywords

dairy cowheat stresstemperature–humidity indexrumination timeanimal welfare
Type
Research Article
Information
animal , Volume 11 , Issue 12 , December 2017 , pp. 2320 - 2325
Copyright
© The Animal Consortium 2017 

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