Application Of Infrared Thermography In The Field Detection Of Dairy Cow’s Skin Temperature

The purpose of this experiment is to explore the feasibility of infrared thermography that measures dairy cow skin surface temperature and estimates body temperature in a f ast, accurate, and safe measuring method, meanwhile discuss the feasibility of detection of mastitis using infrared thermography in order to find a fast and reliable method for early diagnosis of mastitis.Under the condition of air temperature between 1.0 and 25.5 ℃ in dairy cow barns, infrared thermography was used to measured the eyes, udders and hips skin temperatures of 305 dairy cows with normal body temperature(37.5~39.5 ℃), and the correlations were analyzed between the skin surface temperatures, body temperatures and air temperature. Results showed that body temperature of dairy cows was affected significantly by air temperatures(P <0.01). Maximum and average skin surface temperatures of eyes, udders and hips of dairy cows were affected significantly by air temperatures(P <0.01). And maximum and average skin surface temperatures of eyes, udders and hips of dairy cows were affected significantly by body temperatures too(P <0.01).Under the condition of air temperature between 1.0 and 25.5 ℃ in dairy cow barns, infrared thermography was used to measured the eyes, udders and hips skin temperatures of 83 fevered dairy cows(body temperature above 39.5 ℃), and the correlations were analyzed between the skin surface temperatures, body temperatures and air temperature. Results showed that maximum and average skin temperatures of eyes, udders and hips of fevered dairy cow were significantly higher than that of normal body temperature dairy cows(P<0.05). Maximum and average temperatures of eyes, udders and hips skin surface temperatures of fevered dairy cows were significantly affected by air temperatures(P<0.01). Except average temperature of dairy cow eyes skin was significantly influenced by body temperatures, the rest(maximum temperatures of eye, udder and hip skin, and average temperatures of udder and hip skin) were not subject to the influence of body temperatures(P> 0.05).Under the condition of air temperature between 1.3 and 33.7 ℃ in dairy cow barns, udder skin surface temperature of 405 dairy cows(normal, subclinical mastitis and clinical mastitis dairy cow, each 135) was measured with the help of infrared thermography, and the udder skin surface temperature for normal, subclinical mastitis and clinical mastitis dairy cows was analyzed. Results showed that skin surface temperatures of dairy cows’ udder with clinical mastitis were highest, subclinical mastitis in the middle, and normal ones were lowest, and differences reached a significant level(P<0.01). The skin surface temperature difference of dairy cows’ udder between clinical and subclinical was 0.33 ~ 0.63 ℃, together with a range of 0.37 ~ 1.67 ℃ between subclinical and normal, and 0.7 ~ 2.3 ℃ between clinical and normal.