Participation is free upon registration at https://us02web.zoom.us/web-seminar/register/WN_CNJAIuJxTLS-Pt9xbyMYQA
Programme at a glance
- h. 19: 00 - Introduction. Christa Egger-Danner, moderator (ICAR Working Group on Functional Traits)
- h. 19:10 - Tools and practices to disseminate animal health: DISARM Active Network. Nicola Gough, IDF
- h. 19:15 - Lameness, a global dairy challenge. Jon Huxley, Massey University, NZ
- h. 19:35 - New Guidelines for recording lameness in dairy cattle. Anne-Marie Christen, Lactanet, CA
- h: 19:45 - Lameness scoring: Improving consistency, accuracy and managing expectations. Nick Bell, Herd Health Consultancy, UK
Details of the programme
On the first presentation Nicola Gough will present the DISARM initiative. Funded by the EU Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme, DISARM is a collaboration between farmers, veterinarians, advisory services, academics and industry to disseminate innovative solutions for antibiotic resistance management in livestock production to alleviate the threat of antibiotic resistance.
Then, Dr. Jon Huxley, NZ will introduce the problems generated by lameness, being one of the most intractable health, welfare and production problems of dairy cattle globally. The presentation will review the impacts of lameness on the global dairy herd and identify key areas for on farm intervention.
The New Guidelines for recording lameness in dairy cattle will be summarized by Anne-Marie Christen, CA. Under the umbrella of ICAR, a group of experts joined their expertise and knowledge to produce these Guidelines. They will be useful for breeding and dairy organizations, DHI agencies and others who would like to implement a method, data collection and recording of lameness with the objective of improving health and welfare of dairy cattle.
Finally, Dr. Nick Bell, Herd Health Consultancy, UK will end the web-seminar in presenting practical aspects of the lameness scoring. Health of feet and legs is so important to herd productivity, fertility, welfare and cow longevity. Locomotion scoring was originally developed to evaluate clinical trials but has found a useful application in measuring and monitoring lameness in the field. However, key to success is adopting robust methods of implementation with skilled interpretation of the results. There are many practical considerations when it comes to applying lameness scoring in the dairy farm setting.
