Agitation behaviour and heart rate of dairy cows with and without calf-contact during different stimuli in the parlour

Farmers who are interested to rear calves together with the dairy cows during the first weeks of life are confronted with problems of poor milk let-down during machine milking. Therefore it was investigated whether 3 calf-associated stimuli were capable to enhance milkability of the cows. In this contribution, the effect of the stimulations during milking on heart rate (HR) and agitation (rumination, posture of the head and behaviour during udder preparation)are presented. Olfactory (calf hair), tactile (teat massage) and acoustic(recorded calf calls)stimulation were tested on 15 dairy cows with permanent contact to their calves and 22 control cows. All cows were milked twice daily. Stimulation tests were conducted in 3 consecutive weeks during day 25–51 of lactation, each stimulus tested in 4 milkings versus 4 routine milkings. As HR was only measured at morning milkings there were only 2 repetitions per stimulus. Mixed models with the fixed factors stimulation (vs. routine milking), calf-contact, breed (German Red Pied vs. German Holstein) and parity (primiparous vs. pluriparous) and the random factor animal were applied for each parameter. Rumination and posture of the head were not influenced by any factor. Agitation behaviour and HR in the parlour were not affected by calf-contact. This questions stress as elicitor of problems with milk ejection. Tactile stimulation had an increasing, acoustic stimulation a decreasing effect on HR. German Red Pied showed more agitation behaviour during udder preparation and a higher HR in this phase compared to the German Holsteins. This could be due to differences in temperament or sensitivity to touching. According to expectations, primiparous cows showed more agitation during udder preparation than pluriparous, but this was not accompanied by an HR increase. The results did not indicate higher stress reactions in the parlour of dairy cows with calf contact. Acoustic stimulation led to a lower HR independent from calf-contact compared with HR at routine milking

Wenn Milchkühe ihre Kälber säugen - freier vs. Halbtagskontakt

The influence of three calf rearing systems on milk yield, milk composition, udder 18:00, n=11) and no damtheir dam after birth. In the 10th week of life contact dams and calves were physicallyseparated and had only visual contact. They were trained to drink from nipple buckets. In the 11th week of life thcontact. All calves were gradually weaned from milk until the 13th- cows and those gave less milk than-indicating disturbed milk ejection. Udder health was not affected. Nursed calves grew ut after separation there was a growth check. However, two weeks after weaning live weights of dam reared calves were still significantly higher Hence, our results suggest that half-day mother-calfcontact helps to decrease milk losses while calf development is still improved

Milchleistung, Milchfluss und Milchinhaltsstoffe von Kühen mit und ohne Kalbkontakt in Abhängigkeit von verschiedenen Stimulationsverfahren beim Melken

Farmers who are interested to rear calves together with the dairy cows during the first weeks of life are confronted with problems of poor milk let-down during machine milking. This study investigates the influence of three calf-associated stimuli during milking on milk yield, milk content and milk flow characteristics: olfactory (calf hair), tactile (teat massage) and acoustic (recorded calf calls) stimulation including 14 dairy cows with permanent contact to their calves (group KM) and 22 control cows (group M). All cows were milked twice daily. Stimulation tests were conducted in three consecutive weeks during day 25-51 of lactation, each stimulus tested in four milkings versus four milkings without stimulation. Mixed models with the fixed factors stimulation (vs. no stimulation), group, time of day, interaction stimulation*group and the random factor cows were applied for each stimulus. Stimulations had only minor effects on the measured parameters and did thus not improve the existing milkability of the dairy cows with and without calf contact. Differences between the groups were significant. KM-cows had a decreased milk yield of ca. 10 kg per milking and reduced fat content of about 1%. Also milk flow was lower than in M-cows. Further research on how to improve milk let-down of cows with calf contact should pay attention to the duration of pre-stimulation and the length of daily calf contact

Leiden behornte Milchkühe weniger unter leichtem bis moderatem Hitzestress als enthornte?

Es wird vermutetet, dass Hörner bei der Thermoregulation von Rindern eine Rolle spielen könnten. Deshalb wurde die Atemfrequenz, als Indikator für Hitzestress, von behornten und enthornten Europäischen Milchkühen, die gemeinsam in einer Herde im Stall gehalten wurden, erfasst. Die Gruppenzusammensetzung (N=7) war bezüglich Laktationsstand (35-354 d), Milchleistung (5,6-36,6 kg/d) und Fellfarbe balanciert. Die Atemfrequenz jedes Tieres wurde an fünf aufeinanderfolgenden Tagen durch eine Person erfasst. Der Temperature Humidity Index (THI) wurde alle 10 min. im Stall gemessen. Zur Datenanalyse wurde ein gemischtes Modell verwendet (zufälliger Faktor: Tier, fixe Faktoren: Hornstatus, THI). Der THI lag zwischen 71,9-81,5 (Mittel=75,9). Mit steigendem THI, stieg auch die Atemfrequenz an (Modellschätzwert=0,9, P=0,0341). Die Atemfrequenz lag zwischen 29,6-78,5 (Mittel=55,0). Der Hornstatus hatte keinen Einfluss auf die Atemfrequenz (P=0,5294). Im Stall hatte die Behornung keinen abschwächenden Effekt auf leichten bis moderaten Hitzestress

Retinal ganglion cell and inner plexiform layer thinning in clinically isolated syndrome

BACKGROUND: Axonal and neuronal damage are widely accepted as key events in the disease course of multiple sclerosis. However, it has been unclear to date at which stage in disease evolution neurodegeneration begins and whether neuronal damage can occur even in the absence of acute inflammatory attacks. OBJECTIVE: To characterize inner retinal layer changes in patients with clinically isolated syndrome (CIS). METHOD: 45 patients with CIS and age- and sex-matched healthy controls were investigated using spectral domain optical coherence tomography. Patients' eyes were stratified into the following categories according to history of optic neuritis (ON): eyes with clinically-diagnosed ON (CIS-ON), eyes with suspected subclinical ON (CIS-SON) as indicated by a visual evoked potential latency of >115ms and eyes unaffected by ON (CIS-NON). RESULTS: CIS-NON eyes showed significant reduction of ganglion cell- and inner plexiform layer and a topography similar to that of CIS-ON eyes. Seven eyes were characterized as CIS-SON and likewise showed significant retinal layer thinning. The most pronounced thinning was present in CIS-ON eyes. CONCLUSION: Our findings indicate that retinal pathology does occur already in CIS. Intraretinal layer segmentation may be an easily applicable, non-invasive method for early detection of retinal pathology in patients unaffected by ON