Abstract #T23

# T23
Incidence of health treatments among pure Holsteins of 8 high-performance dairies in Minnesota.
M. R. Donnelly*1, A. R. Hazel1, B. J. Heins2, L. B. Hansen1, 1University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN, 2West-Central Research and Outreach Center, Morris, MN.

Health treatments of pure Holstein cows (n = 3,936) were evaluated in 8 high-performance Minnesota dairies. Cows calved from March 2008 to February 2013, and 16 types of health treatments were defined uniformly across herds. For analysis, treatments were grouped into 5 categories: mastitis, reproduction (cystic ovary, retained placenta, and metritis), hoof, metabolic (milk fever, displaced abomasum, ketosis, and digestive), and miscellaneous (respiratory, injury, and other). Excluded from analysis were California Mastitis Test/culture, hoof trimming, palpation, reproductive aid, and abortion. Parity was coded as 1 (n = 2,285), 2 (n = 2,529), or 3 to 5 (n = 3,842), and later lactations were deleted. Observations were recorded for entire lactations and coded as treated (1) or not treated (0) during a lactation. Independent variables for statistical analysis of all 5 treatment categories were the fixed effects of herd, year-season nested within herd, parity, and interaction of herd and parity. Cow was considered a repeated measure. For all 5 treatment categories, herd and year-season nested within herd were highly significant (P < 0.01). Parity was significant (P < 0.05) for all 5 categories of health treatments, except parity was not significant (P = 0.71) for miscellaneous. Interaction of herd and parity was significant (P < 0.05) for all categories. Least squares means increased with advancing parity for all 5 treatment categories except for the miscellaneous category. Treatment rates for parities 1, 2, and 3 to 5, respectively, for each health treatment category were 0.25, 0.34, and 0.42 (mastitis); 0.12, 0.13, and 0.16 (reproduction); 0.32, 0.39, and 0.40 (hoof); 0.07, 0.13, and 0.18 (metabolic); 0.14, 0.13, and 0.14 (miscellaneous). Across herds and parities, the largest treatment rate was for the hoof category followed by mastitis, and the other 3 treatment categories had similar treatment rates.

Key Words: health, treatment, mastitis