On-line monitoring of rumination activity in cows suffering subclinical mastitis

SUMMARY The online monitoring of the rumination as a development of the recent past got into the arsenal of the precise dairy farming in order to continuously control the individuals kept in groups on large-scale dairy operations. The time spent with rumination mediates the data primarily about the feed intake and the rumination itself. However, it provides also data about the general welfare and health status (mainly in the early diagnosis of abomasal displacement). The authors tracked the rumination activity (RA) on a dairy farm and completed it with the evaluation of the daily live weight (LW) and milk yield (MY) in healthy and subclinically mastitic state of Israeli Hostein Friesian cows. They found that the time spent with rumination shortens statistically (p < 0.001) in the mastitic state, compared to the healthy state, likewese the live weight (p = 0.018) and the milk production (p < 0.001) significantly decrease. Their results suggest to follow the daily activity of the rumination at a dairy operation, and to use it routinely, as additional information for the early detection of subclinical mastitis