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Research Highlights

The following references are a small sample of those that can be found on DairyScience.ca, an on-line library of Canadian dairy cattle production research articles. Click on a title to view a short abstract of that article.

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Complete published articles (linked from their abstract pages) are all in portable document format (pdf). To view them, you will require Adobe Reader.

Title: Validation of two measures of lameness in dairy cows
Summary: Lame cows treated with anesthetic demonstrated less weight transfer to healthy limbs, as indicated by both gait scoring and a scale that measured weight borne by each limb indicated lame cows treated
Title: Effect of Hoof Pathologies on Subjective Assessment of Dairy Cow Gait
Summary: Describes a study that examined the effects of sole hemorrhages and sole ulcers on gait measurements.
Title: Analgesics Improve the Gait of Lame Dairy Cattle
Summary: An investigation of the influence of pain due to lameness on dairy cow locomotion.
Title: Stall dimensions and the prevalence of lameness, injury, and cleanliness on 317 tie-stall dairy farms in Ontario
Summary: Describes a study to establish benchmarks for tie-stall dimensions as well as indicators of lameness and animal welfare on Ontario dairy farms.
Title: Hoof Discomfort Changes How Dairy Cattle Distribute Their Body Weight
Summary: Describes a study designed to determine how non-lame cows would change the weight distribution on their four limbs in response to discomfort in one or more hooves.
Title: Effects of pasture on lameness in dairy cows
Summary: Lame cows benefit from spending even short periods on pasture.
Title: Tie-stall design and its relationship to lameness, injury and cleanliness on 317 Ontario dairy farms
Summary: Identifies relationships between tie-stall design and selected cow based injury, lameness and cleanliness measurements.
Title: Genetics of locomotion
Summary: Cows with a higher feet and legs score, steeper foot angle and straighter legs had a genetically better locomotion.
Title: Hoof pathologies influence kinematic measures of dairy cow gait
Summary: Kinematic gait analysis hast potential for understanding how hoof pathologies affect dairy cow mobility.
Title: The relationship between herd level disease incidence and return over feed index in Ontario dairy herds
Summary: Examines associations between herd profitability and the herd level incidence of health disorders in 48 Ontario dairy herds.
Title: Effects of Milking on Dairy Cow Gait
Summary: Describes a study that examined gait characteristics of cows before and after milking to determine the effects of full udders on locomotion.
Title: Effect of softer flooring in tie stalls on resting behavior and leg injuries of lactating cows
Summary: Cows housed in tie stalls on rubber mats spent more time lying down and had fewer hock injuries than those housed on concrete.
Title: Softer, higher-friction flooring improves gait of cows with and without sole ulcers
Summary: Compared rubber and concrete flooring effects on locomotion of lame cows.
Title: Infrared thermography and visual examination of hooves of dairy cows in two stages of lactation
Summary: Describes a study to determine if infrared thermography could be used to monitor hoof health.
Title: Claw hardness of dairy cows: Relationship to water content and claw lesions
Summary: Exposure to moist surfaces results in softer claws and cows with softer claws are at greater risk for lameness.
Title: Canadian veterinarians’ use of analgesics in cattle, pigs, and horses in 2004 and 2005
Summary: Summarizes results of a survey of the use of pain-relief drugs by veterinarians.
Title: Effect of repeated arthrocentesis and single joint lavage on cytologic evaluation of synovial fluid in 5 young calves
Summary: Evaluates the effects of diagnostic procedures on joint condition in cows suffering from joint lameness.
Title: Effects of Sand and Straw Bedding on the Lying Behavior, Cleanliness, and Hoof and Hock Injuries of Dairy Cows
Summary: Evaluated cow preferences for free stall bedding materials and the effects of those materials on cow cleanliness, hock lesions and claw disease.