Effects of cattle breed and production system on veterinary diagnoses and administrated veterinary medicine in alpine dairy farms

Figures & data

Table 1. Classification of resource-based measures and animal-based parameters as potential risk factors.

Parameters	Classes
Pasture access	Yes | no
Pasture period	>45 days | ≤45 days
Farm dimension	>12 cows | ≤12 cows
Husbandry System	Free-stall | Tie-stall
Concentrates level	High | low
Business organisation	Full-time | part-time
Breed	Brown Swiss | Alpine Grey

Figure 1. Frequency of husbandry systems in respective farm category (HBS: High-Input Brown Swiss farms; HAG: High-Input Alpine Grey farms; LBS: Low-Input Brown Swiss farms; LAG: Low-Input Alpine Grey farms).

Figure 2. Business organisation in respective farm category (HBS: High-Input Brown Swiss farms; HAG: High-Input Alpine Grey farms; LBS: Low-Input Brown Swiss farms; LAG: Low-Input Alpine Grey farms).

Table 2. Structural characteristics of investigated farms.

	HBS (n = 15)		HAG (n = 11)		LBS (n = 9)		LAG (n = 6)		Kruskal–Wallis** (df = 3)
	Mean	Std	Mean	Std	Mean	Std	Mean	Std	Chi²	p
Masl, m*	1,134^b	197	1,294^a	206	1,028^c	146	1,160^b	258	188.800	<.001
Pasture days, d	16^d	26	71^b	39	48^c	20	103^a	68	357.000	<.001
Cows, n	12^b	2	12^c	1	11^d	2	13^a	3	68.000	<.001
Calves, n	2^d	2	4^b	2	3^c	2	6^a	4	221.700	<.001
Heifers, n	4^b	3	6^a	3	4^b	1	7^a	4	135.700	<.001
Tot. Animals, n	18^c	3	22^b	4	18^c	2	26^a	10	206.500	<.001

Different superscript letters within a row are significantly different (p < .05) for pairwise comparison of group means using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test; *Metres above sea level; **the Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test for differences among the 4 farm categories.

Table 3. Descriptive statistics of veterinary diagnoses.

Veterinary diagnoses	Frequency	n = 916
Udder diseases	38%	352
Mastitis	38%	346
Others	1%	6
Dry-off practice	21%	190
Parasites	11%	103
Helmints	11%	102
Coccidiosis	0%	1
Reproduction disorders	9%	86
Retained placenta	6%	53
Metritis	2%	15
Others	2%	18
Respiratory diseases	5%	45
Crowding disease	3%	29
Pneumonia	2%	16
Digestive dissorders	4%	40
Diarrhea	1%	12
Others	4%	38
Disbudding	4%	39
Others	7%	61

Bold letters indicate Diagnose groups.

Table 4. Calculated farm diagnoses incidences for respective farm categories.

	HBS		HAG		LBS		LAG		Kruskall–Wallis* (df = 3)
Diagnoses group	Mean	Std	Mean	Std	Mean	Std	Mean	Std	Chi²	p
Udder, %	27.600^a	12.200	10^b	7.700	10.500^b	5.700	8.800^b	7.900	18.900	<.001
Dry-off, %	10.400	19.300	3.400	10.000	5.600	5.200	17.100	19.300	7.300	.060
Parasites, %	2.300	5.800	8.000	13.600	0.000	0.000	9.900	18.300	3.600	.310
Reproductive app., %	4.600	6.800	3.400	3.200	4.300	3.000	2.400	3.000	1.200	.740
Respiratory system, %	3.400	7.300	0.700	1.300	2.800	5.900	0.200	0.400	3.000	.390
Digestive app., %	1.900	2.500	2.100	3.800	2.800	4.200	0.200	0.600	4.400	.220
Disbudding, %	4.100	8.300	0.000	0.000	0.000	0.000	1.900	4.500	5.000	.170

Different superscript letters within a row are significantly different (p < .05) for pairwise comparison of group means using the Wilcoxon rank-sum test; *the Kruskal–Wallis test was used to test for differences among the 4 farm categories.

LAG: low-concentrate Alpine Grey farms; LBS: low-concentrate Brown Swiss farms; HAG: high-concentrate Alpine Grey farms; HBS: high-concentrate Brown Swiss farms.

Table 5. Descriptive statistics of antimicrobials used in respective farm categories.

WHO-class	HBS (n = 673)		HAG (n = 272)		LBS (n = 189)		LAG (n = 226)
	n	%	n	%	n	%	n	%
Highest priority critically important	157	23.3	38	14.0	38	20.1	19	8.4
High priority critically important	210	31.2	83	30.5	56	29.6	81	35.8
Highly important	306	45.5	151	55.5	95	50.3	126	55.8

LAG: low-concentrate Alpine Grey farms; LBS: low-concentrate Brown Swiss farms; HAG: high-concentrate Alpine Grey farms; HBS: high-concentrate Brown Swiss farms.

Table 6. Risk factor analysis for veterinary diagnoses, considering cattle breed, concentrate feeding level, pasture access, pasture period, farm dimension, business organisation and husbandry system as risk factors.

Risk factor^a	p-value	Level 1	Level 2	Odds ratio^b	df	Confidence interval
Udder diseases
Breed	<.0001	BS	AG	2.7650	775	1.9200–3.9800
Level	.0085	Low	High	0.5990	775	0.4100–0.8800
Pasture access	.0008	Yes	No	0.3460	775	0.1900–0.6400
Pasture period, days	.0202	>45	≤45	0.4870	775	0.2700–0.8900
Farm dimension, n	<.0001	>12 cows	≤12 cows	1.9930	775	1.4200–2.8000
Reproductive disorders
Pasture access	<.0001	Yes	No	6.9320	777	3.3700–14.2700
Pasture period, days	<.0001	>45	≤45	4.1140	777	2.1500–7.8600
Business organisation	.0001	Full-time	Part-time	0.3390	777	0.2000–0.5900
Dry-off practices
Breed	.0075	BS	AG	0.4870	772	0.2900–0.8300
Level	<.0001	Low	High	3.8410	772	2.2900–6.4500
Husbandry system	.0091	Free-stall	Tethering	0.4070	772	0.2100–0.8000
Pasture access	.0026	Yes	No	0.1340	772	0.0400–0.4900
Pasture period, days	.0012	>45	≤45	0.1190	772	0.0300–0.4300
Business organisation	<.0001	Full-time	Part-time	3.7540	772	2.1600–6.5300
Parasites infections
Breed	<.0001	BS	AG	0.0480	776	0.0200–0.1000
Level	.0040	Low	High	0.4250	776	0.2400–0.7600
Husbandry system	.0130	Free-stall	Tie-stall	2.0930	776	1.1700–3.7500
Farm dimension, n	<.0001	>12 cows	≤12 cows	0.0400	776	0.0100–0.1700
Respiratory diseases
Breed	.0204	BS	AG	3.6630	779	1.2200–10.9700

^aAll risk factors for the final model were significant (p < .05).

^bOdds Ratio is given for the pairwise comparison between risk factor levels. Level 2 is the reference level. When Odds Ratio <1 the risk is decreased in comparison with the reference level. When Odds Ratio >1 the risk is increased in comparison with the reference level.

AG: Alpine Grey; BS: cattle and specialised Brown Swiss.

Data availability statement

The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author, Dr. Thomas Zanon. The data are not publicly available due to privacy.