Milk yield dynamics as indicators for disease in dairy cows

through lactation compared with healthy cows. The MNR during 10-56 DIM was lower for cows treated for claw and leg disorders compared with healthy cows, but MNR was not of added value for other treatments types or health groups, and neither was skewness. LnVar during 10-56 DIM was higher with increasing number of disease treatments. This indicated that cows with health problems in early lactation had more perturbations in milk yield than healthy cows, but the exact response was dependent on the type of disease and number of disease treatments in early lactation. In conclusion, while lactation curve characteristics specifically indicated cows with a systemic or inflammatory health problem, dynamic indicators of milk yield indicated both cows with a systemic or inflammatory health problem and cows with other health problems. The impact of specific diseases on milk yield dynamics should be further investigated to potentially allow for application in on-farm health monitoring tools.