Short communication: The effects of experimentally induced Escherichia coli clinical mastitis on lying behavior of dairy cows

Clinical mastitis is a commonly occurring and economically important problem in the dairy industry. Researchers have suggested that changes in lying behavior could be useful as early indicators of cow discomfort and poor welfare. The objective of this study was to determine the associations between the onset of illness resulting from experimentally induced clinical mastitis and measures of lying behavior. Clinical mastitis was induced in 21 lactating dairy cows (parity = 2.0 ± 1.0, range = 1 to 4; days in milk = 61 ± 18) by intramammary infusion of 25 or 100 μg of Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) into 1 uninfected mammary quarter. Lying behavior was monitored from 2 d before through 3 d after the LPS challenge by fitting each cow with a data logger. Calculated outcome measures were total lying time, lying time on the side of the intramammary infusion, number of lying bouts, and average lying bout duration. Cows spent less time lying down on the day of the challenge compared with the 2 d before (633.3 vs. 707.0 min/d; SE = 29.6), particularly during the 4 to 7 h following LPS infusion. However, no significant relationship was found between the mammary quarter challenged and cow preference for lying side throughout the episode of induced clinical mastitis. Given that lying is a high-priority behavior in dairy cows and that increased lying time is an adaptive sickness behavior to facilitate recovery, we infer that this reduction in lying time may present a concern for cows with clinical mastitis. Although additional studies with larger numbers of animals are needed, automated monitoring of lying behavior could be an important component of the on-farm early detection of health problems, such as mastitis, in the future.