The ease of movement – how automatic gait and posture analysis can contribute to early lameness detection in dairy cattle

As extensive (early) lameness detection research still has not found a satisfactory solution, this book chapter reports two recent promising approaches and technical developments for early lameness detection in dairy cattle.
The introduced GAITWISE system uses a pressure sensitive mat to monitor the time-dependent location of hooves touching the floor with a specific force and hence uses variables in four dimensions: two spatial, one temporal and one related to force. With this technique the asymmetry and speed seem to be the most promising variables for early lameness detection. A second technique that is described focuses on facilitating vision based information extracted from video recordings. With this system, the step overlap can be measured on the two different cow body sides which highly correlates with manual gait scoring, but there is also a large variation between individual cows in both the evolution of lameness and step overlap. The back arch of a cow during walking can be calculated by fitting a circle through selected points on the spine line. Based on this curvature value, a classification into lameness classes can be done. However, one important question remains. What is the potential of these techniques to be operated on-farm in near future?