The milking machine may affect blood and lymphatic circulation in teat walls,
because the radial and longitudinal stretching action exerted by the milking
vacuum, inducing teat congestion and oedema, altering the defence
mechanisms against bacterial penetration of teat duct. Milking duration,
pulsation parameters and vacuum levels have been recognized as factors
influencing the integrity of teat tissues. Thermography is a non-contact, noninvasive
technique that detects surface heat emitted as infrared radiation.
Because skin temperature reflects the status of underlying tissue metabolism
and blood circulation, abnormal thermal patterns can signify areas of
superficial inflammation or circulatory impairments. The effect of milking
procedures and liners on udder and teat skin temperature was investigated in
buffaloes, showing short and longer-term tissue reactions to machine milking.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the vacuum levels
on udder and teat temperature changes during milking procedure via infrared
thermography. Two groups of 14 buffaloes were milked at 42 kPa, high
vacuum (HV) and, after 3 weeks of adaptation to progressively lower vacuum
levels, at 36 kPa (LV), using the same pulsation parameters (60 cycles/min
and 65:35 ratio). Milking was carried-out at intervals of 9 hours (daytime) and
15 hours (over-night). Tests were performed in a 28+28 units parallel parlour
with low line milking system equipped with light weight clusters (1.78 kg),
automatic cluster removers and electronic herd management system.
Thermographic images (Flir System, ThermaCam P25) of teats (base-teat â
BT; middle-teat â MT and tip-teat â TT) were taken pre-milking (PM),
immediately after milking (IAM) and up to 5 minutes after milking (M+).
Temperatures were recovered by processing the thermoimages in ThermaCam
Researcher Basic 2.8 Software. The results of vacuum level effects on teat
tissue temperature show evident differences among BT and TT, and among
MT and TT in all stages
