Associations between lying behavior and activity and hypocalcemia in grazing dairy cows during the transition period

Hypocalcemia is a common metabolic disorder of transition dairy cows that is considered a gateway disease, increasing the risk of other health disorders and reducing cow performance. Clinical milk fever is associated with long periods of recumbency, and it is plausible that cows experiencing non-paretic hypocalcemia may spend more time lying; hence, lying behavior and activity measures may be useful in identifying at-risk cows. The objective of this study was to describe associations among blood calcium (Ca) status at calving and lying behavior and activity measures during the transition period in grazing dairy cows. Blood was sampled on the day of calving (d 0), and d 1, 2, 3, and 4 postcalving, and analyzed for total plasma Ca concentration. Twenty-four multiparous Holstein-Friesian and Holstein-Friesian × Jersey grazing dairy cows were classified, retrospectively, as clinically hypocalcemic (CLIN; blood Ca ≤ 1.4 mmol/L at 1 or more consecutive samplings within 48 h postcalving, but without parturient paresis). These cows were pair-matched (using milk production potential from their estimated breeding value for milk protein, mean body weight at wk -5 and -6 precalving, and, where possible, parity) with 24 cows classified as subclinically hypocalcemic (SUB; blood Ca > 1.4 and < 2.0 mmol/L at 2 consecutive samplings within 48 h postcalving), and 24 cows classified as normocalcemic (NORM; blood Ca ≥ 2.0 mmol/L at 3 consecutive samplings within 72 h postcalving). Lying behavior and activity were monitored using triaxial accelerometers from -21 to +35 d relative to calving. Data were summarized to calculate daily lying time (h/d), daily number of lying bouts (LB; no./d), mean LB duration (min/bout), and the number of steps taken (steps/d). On d 0, the CLIN group were less active and spent approximately 2.6 h longer lying than the SUB and NORM groups, particularly between 0200 and 1400 h. On d 0, the NORM group had fewer LB (16.3/d) than the SUB and CLIN groups (18.2 and 19.2/d, respectively). These differences in behavior were no longer detected 2 d postcalving, and no further differences were observed. The day before calving, the CLIN group spent 1.4 h longer lying down than did the SUB and NORM groups. Further, the relative change in steps from a precalving baseline period (d -14 to -7) until d 0 was positively, linearly associated with blood Ca concentration within 24 h postcalving. Future work should consider daily and temporal changes in behavior in individual cows to determine the potential for these measures to allow early detection of hypocalcemia.