Preliminary evaluation and progress in the incorporation of camera-based locomotion scores and hoof lesions into a national database

Objectives

Provide preliminary data from a pilot study investigating the use of a video analytics platform (CattleEye) to score locomotion in dairy cows in conjunction with lesion data collected with hoof trimmer and herd management software. The ultimate objective of the project is to utilize these data for on-farm management of hoof health as well as flow into a pipeline providing data to be used for genetic evaluations.

Materials and methods

To date, 464,360 locomotion scores (LS) have been collected routinely on a large, primarily Holstein herd from 4,047 unique cows beginning in July 2021 using the video analytics platform. Scores range from 0 to 100 with scores greater than 50 being considered lame by the platform based on a validation study. Additionally, specific lesion data are collected from hoof trimming sessions and combined into herd management data, including digital dermatitis (DD), ulcer, white line diseases (WLD), foot rot (FR), toe (includes thin soles/toe ulcers), corkscrew claw (CC), injury (LEG), or other hoof problems (OTHER). Collected data also indicate the affected limb. Unique events collected from January 2020 to 2022 total 101,021 with 968 coded as a lameness (LAME) event and 8,598 coded as a hoof trimming (TRIM) event. Associated lactation data were acquired from the United States National Dairy Cooperator database. These data allowed for cross-checking animal identification, birthdate, calving date, and parity. [...]