Behavioral indicators of mastitis: feeding-to-rumination ratio as a predictive tool in Holstein–Czech Fleckvieh crossbreeds

The study evaluated the impact of clinical and subclinical mastitis in 656 Holstein-Czech Fleckvieh crossbred cows on feeding time, rumination, feeding-to-rumination ratio, and events of increased activity. Statistical analysis was performed in SAS 9.4. using the GLM procedure. It also assessed the feeding to rumination ratio as a potential predictor of subclinical or clinical mastitis. Significant behavioral changes were observed before onset of mastitis. Feeding duration peaked six days before symptoms (255.06 ± 5.21 min) for subclinical mastitis and nine days prior to clinical mastitis (235.53 ± 10.21 min). This is possible to confirmed also by significant changes in events of increased activity were also observed before disease onset. Rumination was highest on the day of clinical mastitis detection (491.24 ± 10.63) but lowest the day before detection (403.77 ± 5.43 min) for subclinical mastitis, indicating possible stress-related changes. The feeding-to-rumination ratio fluctuated, peaking at 0.57 ± 0.01 five days before subclinical mastitis and at 0.80 ± 0.02 for clinical mastitis, potentially reflecting metabolic and health status changes. At the onset of mastitis, the ratio declined to 0.44 for clinical cases and 0.50 for subclinical cases. Cows with subclinical mastitis exhibited longer feeding time and more events of increased activity, whereas those with clinical mastitis showed increased rumination. These differences highlight distinct behavioral responses to mastitis types. The study suggests that monitoring the feeding-to-rumination ratio and its trends over time could serve as an early indicator for mastitis detection.