Get access to all handy features included in the IVIS website
- Get unlimited access to books, proceedings and journals.
- Get access to a global catalogue of meetings, on-site and online courses, webinars and educational videos.
- Bookmark your favorite articles in My Library for future reading.
- Save future meetings and courses in My Calendar and My e-Learning.
- Ask authors questions and read what others have to say.
Farmer and veterinarian perception on udder health management
Farre, M.; Kirkeby, C.T.; Halasa, T...
Get access to all handy features included in the IVIS website
- Get unlimited access to books, proceedings and journals.
- Get access to a global catalogue of meetings, on-site and online courses, webinars and educational videos.
- Bookmark your favorite articles in My Library for future reading.
- Save future meetings and courses in My Calendar and My e-Learning.
- Ask authors questions and read what others have to say.
Read
Objectives: Mastitis is the most costly disease in dairy herds in developed countries (Hogeveen et al., 2019) and a significant reason for compromised animal welfare (von Keyserlingk et al., 2009). We have much knowledge on mastitis and udder health management, allowing for evidence-based improvement. In recent years, motivation and perception of the farmer have received increasing attention, with communication research (Jansen et al., 2010b; Jansen et al., 2010a), to successfully implement procedures such as the NMC 10-point plan(NMC, 2016). As a consultant, the veterinarian has a crucial role in udder health management, and their behavior has been described (McDermott et al., 2017). However, the effect of veterinary consultancy depends on the interaction between farmer and veterinarian. Because perceptions of udder health can differ between farmer and herd veterinarians, it is crucial to identify potential gaps in agreement to understand the impact on the outcome BMTSCC.
Material and methods: The participating dairy farmers and veterinarians were enrolled on the Danish National Cattle Data Base data. The criteria for participating were: DHI recording, > 90 % Holstein cows, parlor milking, conventional herd, herd size > 100 cows located in the western part of the country. The dairy farmers were contacted first and encouraged to participate in an anonymous survey conducted in a larger research project on udder health management. Next, the herd vet was contacted and encouraged to participate. The study enrolled a total of 88 herds with their herd veterinarian. The survey included questions regarding cooperation between farmer and herd veterinarian and the consulting methods by the vet. Veterinarians received the questionnaire by email and were reminded if not responding within two weeks. The dairy farmers filled out the questionnaire during the visit from the researcher. The answers were predominantly based on the Likert scale (Likert, 1932) to measure agreement between dairy farmers and herd veterinarians.
Results: The response percentage was 100 % for the dairy farmers and 94 % for the herd veterinarians. Initial analysis was an agreement based on Cohens Kappa and weighted Kappa value. Focusing on some of the results, the farmer regards the vet as most important in handling udder health in the dairy herd, with 91 % answering agree or strongly agreeing to this question. Also, in converting Evidence-Based Scientific Data to operational consulting, 74 % of the farmers agree or strongly agree about the vet`s effort. The data will be further analyzed, focusing on the agreement between the farmer and the vet, linked to the outcome BMTSCC as a proxy of udder health. This will high light where the herd veterinarian needs to focus to maintain the role as resource in the area udder health management in competition with other professionals and equipment supplier.
Conclusions: The initial results highlight differences in perception between farmer and herd veterinarians regarding udder health. Identifying potential obstacles is essential because the farmer sees the herd veterinarian as critical in udder health consulting. The vet translates evidence-based knowledge in udder health management to apply practical solutions for the farmer.
Get access to all handy features included in the IVIS website
- Get unlimited access to books, proceedings and journals.
- Get access to a global catalogue of meetings, on-site and online courses, webinars and educational videos.
- Bookmark your favorite articles in My Library for future reading.
- Save future meetings and courses in My Calendar and My e-Learning.
- Ask authors questions and read what others have to say.
About
Affiliation of the authors at the time of publication
KU SUND, Vejen, Denmark;
KU SUND, Copenhagen, Denmark;
Novo Nordisk, Bagsværd, Denmark;
SEGES Innovation, Århus, Denmark;
Wageningen University, Wageningen, Netherlands.
Comments (0)
Ask the author
0 comments