Dairy cows under experimentally-induced Escherichia coli mastitis show negative emotional states assessed through Qualitative Behaviour Assessment

These findings indicate that dairy cows experienced negative emotional state in the acute phase and positive emotional state in the remission phase of mastitis. This suggests that provision of pain-relief treatment during mastitis may improve animal welfare, and potentially lead to faster disease remission. However the sample size of this study was small, and larger controlled studies are needed to further investigate these findings and hypotheses. The sensitivity of QBA in this small study suggests it could potentially be a useful tool for E. coli mastitis detection.