Is Thermography a Possible New Method to Evaluate Body Temperature in Fresh Cows?

Abstract

The period comprising one month postpartum represents the highest risk of disease occurrence in dairy cows. In freestall systems in general, cows are housed in post-fresh pens after calving where intense health surveillance has been recognized as a major determinant of cow performance during the subsequent lactation. Rectal body temperature (RT) and appetite are the most important indicators of health status, but their assessment is sometimes neglected due to time constraints, yielding poor compliance with health surveillance protocols. Thermography has largely shown the capability to accurately and quickly evaluate body temperature in other species such as humans, and widespread usage of this technology has made affordable and manageable thermographic units more available.

With the advantage of a rapid measurement, the objective of the study is to evaluate whether thermography can be comparable to RT as a diagnostic test to identify cows over an established RT threshold.