USING INFRARED THERMOGRAPHY TO DETERMINE UDDER MASTITIS AND ITS INFLUENCE ON COW PRODUCTIVITY

Mastitis is one of the most common diseases of dairy cows, affecting the udder health, the quantity and quality of milk produced. Early detection of the disease can reduce the cost of treatment, maintain the health and milk production of animals. To diagnose subclinical and clinical forms of mastitis and study their effect on productivity, the authors monitored the udder surface temperature in healthy and sick animals. The research involved about 200 milking purebred cows of the Yaroslavl breed, among which pairs-analogues were selected in accordance with the requirements of OST 70.20.2-80 "Milking installations for cows. Program and test methods". One animal from the pair was in the experimental group, and the other was in the control group. The productivity of animals in pairs did not differ by more than + 5% (in a healthy state). Animals in the studied groups were in the third or fourth month of lactation. Animal productivity was assessed once a month by conducting control milkings. Thermal imaging studies were carried out on a working dairy farm using a Guide C400M thermal imager operating in the infrared range with an image resolution of 384 x 288. As a result of the studies, thermograms of the udder surface temperature in diseased animals and their healthy counterparts were analyzed and the following udder temperature ranges were identified: 32...35°C - in healthy animals with a negative test for mastitis; 36...37°C - in animals with a subclinical form of mastitis; 38...39°C - in animals with a clinical form of mastitis. For sick animals, the extremely high relationship between the critical increase in udder surface temperature and milk yields was confirmed by the linear Pearson correlation coefficient. The conclusion was made that the use of infrared thermography to determine the temperature thresholds of the udder is a fast and non-invasive way to obtain reliable information about an animal's health and productivity.

dairy farming, mastitis, infrared thermography, milking, controlled parameters

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