DairyCo

Hygiene Scoring

Hygiene scoring systems for dairy cows - where the herd or a representative proportion of the herd is scored on the basis of how much muck and dirt adhere to their back legs and udders - can be used to broadly measure the standard of various aspects in the management of dairy cows, particularly with regard to controlling the incidence of infectious diseases or monitoring cow comfort levels.

Several different systems are used but they share common similarities. Hygiene scoring systems usually score cows on a scale of 1 to 4 (and sometimes 1 to 5) on the udder - the fore and rear udders, the udder floor and teats - and the lower rear legs - from hock to floor, including the hoof. The scoring process can take place at any time of the year, but may be particularly useful during housing or when grazing during particularly wet conditions.

Most obviously, hygiene scoring is used to monitor how clean cows are being kept by the system in which they are housed in terms of environmental mastitis prevention, but it can also indicate nutritional and general health issues.

In particular, hygiene scoring can help to indicate how the incidence of lameness in the herd affects levels of cow cleanliness, and, perhaps more importantly, how the levels of cleanliness themselves, such aspoor bedding management or insufficient passageway scraping, may be factorial in causing hoof conditions which can lead to mobility problems, such as digital dermatitis and heel horn erosion.

On an individual cow basis, where cows score 3 or 4, further investigation may help to indicate the reasons why these particular cows are so dirty. Dirtiness may be related to the health of the cow and her nutrition, but can also be due to the particular habits of the cow when walking, lying down or feeding, or housing management issues. Linking the results from mobility scoring and hygiene scoring may indicate important correlations between dirty and lame cows.