Czech J. Anim. Sci., 2024, 69(5):165-177 | DOI: 10.17221/53/2024-CJAS

A decision support system based on disease scoring enables dairy farmers to proactively improve herd healthOriginal Paper

Jan Saro ORCID...1, Luděk Stádník ORCID...2, Petra Bláhová ORCID...1, Simona Huguet ORCID...1, Helena Brožová ORCID...1, Jaromír Ducháček ORCID...2
1 Department of Systems Engineering, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague – Suchdol, Czech Republic
2 Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague – Suchdol, Czech Republic

Decision support systems (DSSs) enable dairy farmers to make informed and timely decisions on herd health management. However, the lack of a disease scoring system by category and severity limits the application of this approach. In this study, we developed an innovative approach to dairy herd health management by establishing a novel scoring system for dairy herd health management aimed at providing a more nuanced understanding of disease impact. For this purpose, we retrieved 5-year data from 2 558 disease diary records of 798 primiparous and multiparous cows housed on a Czech farm and classified 125 production diseases into six categories, namely lameness, mastitis, postpartum diseases, digestive system, reproductive diseases and other diseases. Based on this metric, we developed a data-driven DSS for farm management. Using this DSS, we identified markers of disease categories for efficient veterinary monitoring on dairy farms. This DSS highlighted a decreasing trend of average monthly disease scores, yet the prevalence of postpartum and other diseases increased during the same period, due to changes in reproduction management within the herd. These findings underscore the need for data-driven targeted interventions for promoting the herd health. Therefore, our scoring model not only provides a comprehensive framework for dairy herd health monitoring and improvement but also advances dairy farming by providing a decision support system easily applicable to dairy farms based on available data recorded in disease diaries.

Keywords: dairy cows; descriptive analysis; disease scoring system; farm management; production disease

Received: April 12, 2024; Accepted: May 22, 2024; Published: May 31, 2024  Show citation

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Saro J, Stádník L, Bláhová P, Huguet S, Brožová H, Ducháček J. A decision support system based on disease scoring enables dairy farmers to proactively improve herd health. Czech J. Anim. Sci. 2024;69(5):165-177. doi: 10.17221/53/2024-CJAS.
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