GB2248540A

GB2248540A - Animal husbandry system

Info

Publication number: GB2248540A
Application number: GB9119987A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Andrew Alexander Semple Halley
Original assignee: Individual
Current assignee: Individual
Priority date: 1990-09-26
Filing date: 1991-09-19
Publication date: 1992-04-15
Anticipated expiration: 2011-09-19
Also published as: GB9119987D0; GB2248540B

Abstract

A method of managing a herd of dairy animals comprises affixing to selected animals requiring personal attention tail-tapes carrying printed information denoting the personal attention. In one example the tail tapes relate to the treatment of mastitis requiring three steps of antibiotic treatment followed by three days to clear the residual antibiotic contamination from the milk yield. The selected tail tapes carry indicia denoting the affected udder teat, the antibiotic treatment stage and the time of day (morning or evening) of the milking at which the treatment is applied. A further tail tape defines the 3 day clearance period and the milking at which the selected animals milk yield can be safely included in the yield of the herd.

Description

ANIMAL HUSBANDRY SYSTEM This invention relates to an animal husbandry system.

In the husbandry of dairy animals, particularly bovines, there is a need to provide a system for identifying animals undergoing treatment for cure of disease and for identifying a time interval both during and after treatment when the animal cannot be used as a basis for food production. In this connection it will be appreciated that after disease treatment the treatment may have temporary residual effects which render unsafe food produced from the animal concerned.

Dairy herds are particularly prone to the disease mastitis which is an affliction of the udder teats and the curative treatment involves injection of penicillin up the teat canal. During and after this treatment the milk yield from the animal contains penicillin and to meet EEC regulations on milk quality there is a requirement that the penicillin level in any batch of milk is less than a critical level. The critical level equates approximately to the milk yield of only 1 cow out of the total yield from about 150 cows at any one milking. Failure to meet this regulation is severely penalised. Various diseases and conditions other than mastitis require treatment by antibiotics such as penicillin, e.g. foot infection, post calving uterine infection, and give rise to similar problems of milk contamination.

In the treatment of mastitis by penicillin the affected teat is injected with 3 doses of penicillin on 3 successive milkings or on 3 alternate milkings according to the nature of the penicillin formulation and after the final injection the residual effects of the penicillin in the milk yield remain for up to 3 days. There is therefore a need to identify the infected cow at each milking during the treatment period and for the 3 day interval thereafter. As is well known milking occurs twice per day, morning and evening. There is also a need to identify the stage of treatment within the treatment period and the termination of the 3 day interval following treatment. Throughout the treatment period and the 3 day interval thereafter the total milk yield from the animal should be dumped to waste to avoid contamination of the yield from the remaining herd.Only on expiry of the 3 day interval should the milk yield from the animal be included in the bulk yield of the herd.

The present invention provides in one of its aspects a system for identifying dairy animals undergoing treatment for mastitis, the system comprising sequentially applying to the tail of the diseased animal first adherent tapes carrying respective indicia denoting treatment stage and milking occurrence, and subsequently applying to the tail of the animal a second adherent tape carrying indicia denoting a specific milking occurrence for inclusion of the milk yield from the animal in the bulk yield of the herd.

Preferably the first tapes comprises 3 in number respectively denoting the first, second and third treatment stages. Conveniently each of the first tapes comprises a proforma indicator on which the affected teat of the animal can be denoted. Conveniently also each of the first tapes denotes its milking occurrence by carrying oppositely-facing M and E letters respectively along opposed edges of the tape and indicative of morning and evening milkings, the particular milking occurrence being determined by the orientation of the tape on the animal's tail.

Preferably the second tape comprises one of a series of second tapes each denoting the specific milking occurrence by specifying the particular day of the week and by carrying oppositely-facing M and E letters respectively along opposed edges of the tape and being indicative of morning and evening milkings, the particular milking occurrence being determined by the orientation of the tape on the animal's tail.

The present invention also provides a set of tail tapes for identifying dairy animals undergoing antibiotic treatment of the udder, the set comprising a sub-set of tapes each of which incorporates a proforma indicator on which the affected teat of the animal can be denoted.

Preferably the proforma indicator comprises a schematic overhead outline of an animal's body with head and tail, the body surrounding a set of four stations respectively denoting the location of an udder teat relative to the head and tail and a fifth station denoting a non-udder-teat location, each of said stations being piercable for selectively denoting a particular disease treatment.

In another of its aspects the present invention provides a system for identifying dairy animals undergoing treatment for mastitis, the system comprising applying to the tail of a diseased animal an adherent tape carrying indicia denoting treatment stage and milking occurrence, the milking occurrence being denoted by the tape carrying oppositely-facing M and E letters respectively along opposed edges of the tape and indicative of morning and evening milkings, marking a first treatment stage indicia on the tape and denoting the particular milking occurrence of that first treatment stage by orientation of the tape on the animals tail, and sequentially marking respective treatment stage indicia on the tape at sequential milking occurrences.

Preferably the treatment stage indicia comprise a set of three punch-out stations which are marked by a cut-out punch.

Preferably also the tape comprises a proforma indicator on which the affected teat of the animal can be denoted, the proforma indicator comprising a schematic overhead outline of an animal's body with head and tail, the body surrounding a set of four stations respectively denoting the location of an udder teat relative to the head and tail, each of said teat stations being piercable for selectively denoting a particular disease treatment.

Embodiments of the present invention will now described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings which illustrate different forms of tail tapes.

Figs. 1, 2 and 3 illustrate three different tapes which together form a first set of tapes for use during the treatment of mastitis on an animal. Tape A shown in Fig. 1 differs from tape B shown in Fig. 2 only by having a single line (lOA) whereas tape B contains a pair of lines (lOB). Similarly Tape C shown in Fig. 3 differs from Tapes A and B only by having three lines (lOC).

Lines (lOA), (lOB) and (lOC) extend in the longitudinal direction of the tape but are confined within a proforma indicator (9). Indicator (9) comprises a schematic overhead outline (9A) of an animal's body with head (9B) and tail (9C). Within body (9A) there is a set of four stations (8A), (8B), (8C), (8D) respectively denoting the location of an udder teat relative to the head (9B) and the tail (9C). Additionally a fifth station (8E) is provided centrally of stations (8A), (8B), (8C), (8D) which denotes a non-udder teat location for a purpose which will be explained. The indicator (9) is located at one end of each tape (A), (B), (C) and the remainder of each tape is taken up with a row (11) of adjacent letters E and a row (12) of adjacent letters M.The letters M and E in the rows (12), (11) are oppositely facing and the rows extend along opposed edges of the tape for the purpose of denoting a particular milking occurrence to be either in the morning as denoted by the orientation of the letter M or in the evening as denoted by the letter E.

Each tape (A), (B), (C) is preferably an adhesive backed portion of plastic mounted on a non-stick backing paper so that it can be released from the backing paper and wrapped round the tail of the animal concerned such that indicator (9) remains visible after the wrapping process. The tape can be arranged on the animal's tail with row (11) and its letter E uppermost or with row (12) and its letter M uppermost and in accordance with this orientation only one of the letters M, E is legible in normal manner, the other being inverted. The letters E and M are preferably printed in black ink on a white background as is the general outline of indicator (9).

It is preferred however that stations (8) and lines (10) be printed in red ink.

For the purpose of utilising the tapes (A), (B), (C) when a farmer first encounters an animal having a mastitis condition requiring treatment he applies a first injection of penicillin or other suitable antibiotic to the particular teat which is affected, and affixes label (A) to the animal's tail, having first pierced the relevant station (8) which corresponds with the location of the affected teat. Label (A) is affixed to the animal's tail in an orientation which places either the E or the M in its correct upright position to denote the time of day of the milking at which the treatment was carried out. Thus if the first treatment is carried out at an evening milking the letter E is placed uppermost.Tape (A) is used to denote the first penicillin treatment by virtue of the single line (lOA). The consequence of this animal being possessed with tape (A) is that the milk yield from that animal is recognised as being unsuitable and is therefore discharged to waste. The animal is thereafter freed until the next milking occurrence which will be a morning milking.

At the next milking occurrence in the morning of the following day because the animal has tape (A) on its tail the farmer or milker (who may be a different individual from the person who applied tape (A)) immediately identifies that this animal is undergoing a course of treatment. He looks at tape (A) and identifies that it is tape (A) and also identifies that the (E) is uppermost. Accordingly he is made aware that the requirement is to apply a second stage of penicillin treatment and the second stage should be on a morning milking since the previous tape denotes that the first tape was applied on an evening milking.Accordingly whether or not it is the same person who applied the first stage of treatment the second stage of treatment can now be applied to the affected teat and tape (B) can be affixed to the animal either in substitution for tape (A) or in addition to tape (A), tape (B) having had the appropriate teat station (8) pierced. The milk yield from that animal at that morning milking can also be discharged to waste and thereafter the cow freed until the next milking.

At the next milking when the affected animal is presented to the farmer the farmer is able to identify that a second stage of penicillin has already been undertaken at a morning milking and he can identify that there is a need to apply the third treatment stage and that it should occur at an evening milking. The farmer therefore undertakes the third treatment on the affected teat and applies tape (C) either in substitution for tape (B) or in addition to tape (B) tape (C) being orientated appropriately with the E uppermost since it is an evening milking and with the relevant teat station (8) pierced.

In the event that a mastitis outbreak occurs in any one of the other teats the procedure is applied again in respect of that other teat. Finally on the occasion of the next milking after the final treatment, i.e. stage 3 of the treatment for the affected teat, there being no other affected teat, the farmer additionally or alternatively applies to the animal's tail a tape from a second series of tapes of which only two are denoted in Figs. 4 and 5. This second series of tapes comprises 7 tapes respectively denoted MON for Monday, TUE for Tuesday, WED for Wednesday, THU for Thursday, FRI for Friday, SAT for Saturday and SUN for Sunday. The tapes of the series have differently coloured backgrounds to provide for colour coding and each tape in the set has a row (11) of letters E and a row (12) of letters M set out in the same manner as on tapes (A), (B) and (C).The selected tape at the end of the penicillin treatment stage requires to be mathematically evaluated by the farmer by counting three days from first milking following the third penicillin treatment stage and by orientating the tape with either the M or the E uppermost according to whether the next milking occurrence is in an evening or a morning.

In this way the three day time interval after treatment is identified.

Accordingly when the animal after its penicillin treatment presents itself for milking but contains either tape (D) of Fig.4 or any one of the other tapes (such as tape (E) of Fig. 5) in the second series the farmer is able to identify that the milk yield from that animal requires to be discharged to waste until such time as the milking occurrence is that denoted by the particular tape e.g. tape (D). Thus if tape (D) is in fact applied to the animal's tail the farmer is advised to include the animal's milk yield on the morning milking of Monday assuming of course that it is the M of tape (D) which is in the upright position.

It will be appreciated that the orientation of the letters E and M is determined by the farmer standing to the rear of the animal and looking towards the animal's head.

Station (8E) which occurs within indicator (9) on each of tapes (A), (B) and (C) when pierced in addition to one or more of stations (8A-8D) is used to identify that the nature of the penicillin treatment for the mastitis is a treatment of penicillin on every second milking occurrence. This of course is determined by the particular formulation of penicillin utilised by the farmer and of course if station (8E) on tape (A) is pierced it is a requirement to utilise the corresponding penicilln formulation for the second treatment stage and tape (B) so that station (8E) in tape (B) is also pierced, and likewise for tape (C) and the third treatment stage.

It will however be appreciated that if station (8E) is pierced because the treatments require to be undertaken only on every second milking each of the three tapes (A), (B) and (C) will be affixed to the animal in the same orientation, that is to say all with the E uppermost or all with the M uppermost.

Tapes (A), (B) and (C) are also used for the purpose of dealing with an antibiotic treatment (such as penicillin) via intramuscular injection when the disease or disorder is something other than mastitis. In this case only the central station (8E) is punched out and each of stations (8A-8D) is left unpunched. Intramuscular penicillin treatment is almost always effected by 3 treatments spaced by 24 hours. Thus at the first treatment tape (A) is applied with only station (8E) punched out and with, say, the M uppermost. The next milking is an evening milking and no treatment is effected. At the following morning milking the second treatment is effected, tape (B) is applied with the M uppermost and with only station (8E) punched out.Tape (C) is applied in similar manner at the third treatment on the next morning milking and following that the three day time interval after treatment is identified and the appropriate one of the tapes of the second series is applied. Throughout this period of using tapes (A), (B), (C) and, say, (D) the milk yield from the animal concerned requires to be discharged to waste until such time as the milking occurrence is that denoted by the particular tape of the second series, e.g. tape (D).

Fig. 6 illustrates a still further tail tape (G) which functions as a management guide or warning tape and is not concerned with antibiotics. Tape (G) comprises a white background with a proforma indicator (9) at one end, being the same as indicators (9) on tapes (A), (B) and (C) but lines (lOA), (lOB) and (lOC) being absent and the various stations (8) being preferably coloured black.

Additionally tape (G) comprises a series of triangles (15) each containing an explanation mark (16) and acting as a warning indicator in either orientation of the tape.

Tape (G) is affixed to the animal to denote that it is afflicted with an udder or teat disease or disorder which does not involve use of antibiotics by piercing of stations (8A) to (8D), or that it is an animal that tends to kick during milking by piercing of station (8E).

Fig. 7 illustrates a tape denoted H which is a single tape used as an alternative to the set of three tapes (A,B,C) of Figs. 1-3 but for the same purpose. Thus in tape H stations (20A,20B,20C) which are individually piercable respectively correspond to line (1or), the two lines (lOB), and the three lines (lOC). Teat stations (8A,8B,8C) and (8D) remain unaltered but station (8E) is removed to outside the proforma indicator schematic outline (9) in the interests of clarity. In use, tape H is first applied to the animal's tail at the first treatment stage with station (20A) pierced or punched-out and with the appropriate teat station pierced. The orientation of tape H is also suited, as before, with either the E or the M uppermost.At the second treatment stage station (20B) is punched out without removing the tape from the animal's tail. At the third treatment stage station (20C) is punched-out without removing the tape from the animal's tail. At completion of the treatment one of the tapes of the second series is applied to the animal's tail, as previously (say for example tape D) Fig. 8 illustrates a tape J which is a management guide tape corresponding to tape G of Fig. 6 but having a modified proforma indicator (9) as per tape H of Fig. 7.

It will be understood that the various tapes which have been described require to be held in a dispense box located in the milking parlour. The box should preferably be locked in order safely to contain the antibiotics required for treating the diseased conditions. The box may also contain a roll of paper towel to enable application of the antibiotics to be made with clean hands. Application of the antibiotics is by way of a syringe either with a needle for systemic administration or with a probe for injecting the antibiotics up the teat canal. The box may additionally incorporate a hand operated piercing tool to permit piercing of the relevant one or ones of stations (8).

Fig. 9 illustrates a tape K which is a management guide tape for use during the 'dry cow period'. Tape K has a row of purple and white stripes 30,31 and at each end of the row a display 32 containing a 'no-feed' indicator 33A with associated punch-out station 33B and a 'no-milking' indicator 34A with associated punch-out station 34B. This tape is used on a cow which runs with the herd and which either being prepared for calving or which has had long-acting antibiotic dry-cow-therapy.

Fig. 10 illustrates a tape L which also is a management guide tape relating to artificial insemination and depending upon the orientation of the tape on the cow's tail denotes artificial insemination by beef bull or by dairy bull. Tape L may be used shortly before, during and after insemination as a means of identification of a particular cow.

Claims

1. A method of managing a herd of dairy animals where from time-to-time individual animals and the milk yield therefrom require special attention, the method comprising identifying the aforesaid individual animals by affixing to the animals' tail an adherent tail-tape carrying printed information denoting the special attention, the tail-tape being selected from a set of such tapes respectively relating to different forms of special attention, and wherein a sub-set of said tapes relates to the treatment of mastitis said sub-set comprising a first tape carrying indicia denoting first, second and third antibiotic treatment stages and indicia denoting milking occurrance, the milking occurrance indicia being oppositely-facing rows of M and E letters along opposed edges of the tape to indicate morning (M) and evening (E) milkings, and wherein the method comprises marking the first treatment stage indicia during the milking when the first stage of antibiotic treatment is applied to the animal and applying the first tape to the animals' tail with the row of M letters uppermost or the row of E letters uppermost according to whether the milking is in morning or evening, and sequentially marking the second and third treatment stage indicia on application of the second and third stages of antibiotic treatment at sequential milking occurrences, and discharging to waste the milk yield from these animals having said first tail tape with one or more of the treatment stage indicia marked.

2. A method of managing a herd of dairy animals where from time-to-time individual animals and the milk yield therefrom require special attention, the method comprising identifying the aforesaid individual animals by affixing to the animals' tail an adherent tail-tape carrying printed information denoting the special attention, the tail-tape being selected from a set of such tapes respectively relating to different forms of special attention, and wherein a sub-set of said tapes relates to the treatment of mastitis, said sub-set comprising a plurality of first tapes respectively carrying indicia denoting first, second and third antibiotic treatment stages and each carrying indicia denoting milking occurrance, the milking occurrance indicia being oppositely facing rows of M and E letters along opposed edges of the tape to indicate morning (M) and evening (E) milkings, and wherein the method comprises sequentially applying said first tapes to the animal's tail during the milkings when the first, second and third treatment stages are administered, with the respective tapes' orientation being with M or E letters uppermost according to whether the milking is in morning or evening, and discharging to waste the milk yield from these animals having said first tail tape with the treatment stage indicia marked.

3. A method as claimed in either preceding claim, wherein the or each first tape comprises a proforma indicator being a schematic overhead outline of an animals body with head and tail, the body surrounding a set of four stations respectively denoting the location of an udder teat relative to the head and tail, and wherein the method comprises piercing a station to denote a particular teat undergoing antibiotic treatment.

4. A method as claimed in any preceding claim wherein said sub-set of tapes comprises a plurality of second tapes respectively denoting a day of the week and each carrying oppositely-facing rows of M and E letters along opposed edges of the tape, and wherein the method further comprises applying a selected second tape to the animals' tail during the first milking after the third stage of antibiotic treatment with the row of M letters uppermost or the row of E letters uppermost according to whether the milking is in the morning or evening, and with the week day indicated on the selected tape being 3 days ahead, discharging to waste the milk yield from these animals having said second tail tape, and removing said second tape from the animal at the milking specified thereon..

5. A method of managing a herd of dairy animals as claimed in claim 1 and substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to the tail tapes illustrated in any one of Figs. 1-10.

6. A set of tail tapes substantially as hereinbefore described with reference to Figs. 1-10 and for use in the described method of managing a herd of dairy animals.