24th Int. Symp. “Animal Science Days”, Ptuj, Slovenia, Sept. 21st−23rd, 2016. Acta argiculturae Slovenica, Supplement 5, 7–11, Ljubljana 2016 Invited lecture COBISS: 1.06 Agris category code: L70 EXCHANGE OF DATA TO IMPROVE DAIRY CATTLE HEALTH: FARMERS’ AND VETERINARIANS’ NEEDS PLENARY SESSION I Invited lecture Birgit FUERST-WALTL 1, Roswitha WEISSENSTEINER 2, Klemens FUCHS 3, Franz GSTOETTINGER 4, Max HOERMANN 5, Roman JANACEK 6, Markus KOBLMUELLER 7, Martin MAYERHOFER 8, Josef PERNER 9, Monika SCHAGERL 10, Gottfried SCHODER 11, Thomas WITTEK 12, Karl ZOTTL 13, Walter OBRITZHAUSER 14, Christa EGGER-DANNER 15 Exchange of data to improve dairy cattle health: farmers’ and veterinarians’ needs 1 University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU), Gregor-Mendel-Str. 33, 1180 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: birgit.fuerst-waltl@boku.ac.at 2 ZuchtData EDV-Dienstleistungen GmbH, Dresdner Str. 89/19, 1200 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: weissensteiner@zuchtdata.at 3 AGES, Spargelfeldgasse 191, 1220 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: klemens.fuchs@ages.at 4 RZV, Sportplatz 7, 4840 Vöcklabruck, Austria, e-mail: gstofra@lk-ooe.at 5 Chamber of Agriculture, Schauflergasse 6, 1010 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: m.hoermann@lk-oe.at 6 Animal Health Organisation Lower Austria, Landhausplatz 1, 3109 St. Pölten, Austria, e-mail: roman.janacek@noel.gv.at 7 LKV Austria, Dresdner Str 89/19, 1200 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: markus.koblmueller@lk-ooe.at 8 Same address as 2, e-mail: mayerhofer@zuchtdata.at 9 Chamber of Veterinarians, Hietzingerkai 83, 1130 Vienna, Austria, e-mail: perner.josef@aon.at 10 Same address as 3, e-mail: monika.schagerl@ages.at 11 Animal Health Organisation Upper Austria, Bahnhofplatz 1, 4021 Linz, e-mail: Gottfried.Schoder@ooe.gv.at 12 University of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinärplatz 1, 1210 Vienna, Austria; e-mail: Thomas.Wittek@vetmeduni.ac.at 13 Same address as 7, e-mail: karl.zottl@lkv-austria.at 14 Same address as 12, e-mail: w.obritzhauser@dairyvet.at 15 Same address as 2, e-mail: egger-danner@zuchtdata.at ABSTRACT Within the Comet K-Project ADDA - Advancement of Dairying in Austria - the basis for an integrated data man- agement tool shall be established. A first step is the assessment of stakeholder needs. For this purpose, internet surveys were developed to gather feedback from farmers and veterinarians about the use of currently available herd manage- ment tools as well as the present status of documentation and recording of relevant data. Two questionnaires, pure on- line surveys for farmers and veterinarians, were designed end of 2014. The questionnaires, comprising of 23 (farmers) and 22 (veterinarians) questions were distributed end of February 2015 and could be completed until April 10, 2015. In total, 9,961 dairy farmers with performance recording and 1,022 contracted veterinarians of Austrian Animal Health Service member farms were contacted. The response rate was 19.1 % in farmers and 20.8 % in veterinarians. Currently, a large proportion of external information to be used for herd management is received on paper or in pdf-format and is thus not further processible. Hence, both farmers and veterinarians desire the integration of different data in platforms for data exchange or internet platforms. The highest interest of both groups is shown in bacteriological milk analyses and other lab data. When asked for necessary developments, more than 66 % of veterinarians request developments enabling them to download raw data. Farmers have the highest interest (78.1 %) in better integration of data of already existing systems (e.g. milking, feeding, performance recording) in order to avoid multiple recording. The combination of data from different data sources could support both, veterinarians and farmers, in their day-to-day work. However, data security aspects need be payed particular attention. Key words: cattle, dairy cows, health data, survey, stakeholder needs, integrated data management Acta agriculturae Slovenica, Supplement 5 – 20168 B. FUERST-WALTL et al. 1 INTRODUCTION The EU Animal Health policy “Prevention is bet- ter than cure” emphasizes the importance of register- ing health data and using it for early detection of ani- mal health problems. However, even though functional traits have been increasingly considered in many cattle populations (e.g. Reents and Rensing, 2009), health is- sues are mostly addressed by indirect health traits (cor- related traits; e.g., somatic cell counts for udder health) rather than direct health traits (veterinary diagnoses, lab findings, direct observations of impaired health). Di- rectly observed indicators of health or disease should be included in breeding, herd management and preventive measures (Kelton et al., 1998) to effectively improve the health status of dairy cattle. In 2006, a nation-wide health monitoring system for cattle was established in Austria (Egger-Danner et al., 2012). It has become part of the routine performance recording in the meantime and was followed by similar health monitoring systems in Baden-Wurttemberg and Bavaria (Fuerst and Egger-Danner, 2014). In 2010, a routine genetic evaluation for mastitis, early reproduc- tive disorders, cystic ovaries and milk fever was imple- mented as part of the joint Austrian-German genetic evaluation for Fleckvieh cattle (dual purpose Simmental; Fuerst et al., 2011). Three years later, a genetic evaluation for the same traits in Brown Swiss and the inclusion of direct health traits in the total merit index (TMI) fol- lowed. When defining a new TMI in 2016, health ob- servations made by farmers around calving were also included (Fürst et al., 2016). For management purposes, extended reports including health data have been avail- able to farmers since 2008 (Egger-Danner et al., 2010). In agreement with farmers veterinarians also receive health reports in order to support herd health monitoring and consultation. Health reports are provided in accord- ance to the performance recording in a 5-week interval (Obritzhauser et al., 2008). Additionally, annual reports of health monitoring provide the basis for evaluating the general health situation of the herd by means of audits which need to be conducted by contracted veterinarians in member farms of the Austrian Animal Health Service (Obritzhauser, 2012). A general problem for both dairy farmers and vet- erinarians is however that many relevant data, in particu- lar health related data, are scattered across different data- bases or different systems on farm which are not linked to each other. On top of that, lack of both interconnect- edness and harmonization forces different persons in- volved to record the same data several times. Apart from dissipation of resources, timely reaction is hindered. A prominent example is the examination of bacteriological data from milk samples. These have not been standard- ized, neither in terms of diagnostic findings nor in word- ing or data format and may hence not be used for genetic analyses, for benchmarking or analyses for preventive purposes. Linking these data would not only be benefi- cial for farmer and veterinarian but also for responsible laboratory personnel by supporting diagnostics with more detailed animal information. Within the Comet K-Project ADDA - Advancement of Dairying in Austria – the basis for an integrated data management tool shall be established. A first step is the assessment of stakeholder needs. For this purpose, in- ternet surveys were developed to gather feedback from farmers and veterinarians about the use of currently available herd management tools as well as the present status of documentation and recording of relevant data. Based on the needs of the stakeholders an overall concept for an integrated data management tool is elaborated subsequently. 2 MATERIAL AND METHODS 2.1 DESIGN AND DISTRIBUTION OF THE QUES- TIONNAIRE To assess the needs and desires of Austrian cattle breeders and their veterinarians regarding herd manage- ment, recording and documentation, two questionnaires were designed end of 2014. After testing the question- naires by means of selected farmers and veterinarians and subsequent adaptations, the questionnaires were dis- tributed end of February 2015. The on-line survey was conducted using the service of SurveyMonkey (2015). E-mails including general information and the link to the questionnaires were sent to both farmers and vet- erinarians. In total, 9,961 dairy farmers with performance recording were contacted by the respective performance recording organisation; the first farmer completed the survey on February 24, 2015. Similarly, 1,022 contracted veterinarians of Austrian Animal Health Service mem- ber farms were contacted by the respective federal Ani- mal Health Service, the first completion of the survey was recorded on February 27, 2015. The anonymous survey could be answered until April 10, 2015. The questionnaires for this survey covered several main topics with 23 and 22 questions for farmers and vet- erinarians, respectively. The main topics were: 1. statistics of the respondent and the farm/veteri- nary practice 2. key figures of the farm/veterinary practice 3. equipping of the farm/veterinary practice Acta agriculturae Slovenica, Supplement 5 – 2016 9 EXCHANGE OF DATA TO IMPROVE DAIRY CATTLE HEALTH: FARMERS’ AND VETERINARIANS’ NEEDS 4. use of computer applications 5. recording and documentation of data 6. use of external information for herd manage- ment and veterinary practice 7. further development of interfaces 8. data supply and utilization of data 2.2 STATISTICAL ANALYSES All descriptive analyses were provided by Survey- Monkey (2015), all further data handling and analyses were made by means of SAS version 9.2. 3 RESULTS AND DISCUSSION The response rate was 19.1 % in farmers (Weissen- steiner et al., 2016) and 20.8 % in veterinarians (Perner et al., 2016). About 33 % of responding farmers are part- time farmers; 47.6 % of farmers have less than 20 cows, 43.9 % between 20 and 49 cows. A trend towards in- creasing mechanization could be observed, e.g. planned investments in automatic milking or feeding systems or activity sensors within the next 5–10 years were men- tioned by up to 15 % of the farmers. Nearly all farmers regularly use computer applications; mostly for any kind of animal registration and reporting (96 %) but also for herd management (70 %; Weissensteiner et al., 2016). Most of the veterinarian respondents (57 %) work in a single practice; 77 % mainly treat livestock in their practice. The majority of veterinarians use electronic equipment (89 %); practice software is available in 72 % of the practices. Among diagnostic tools, ultrasonogra- phy and practice laboratory is present in 80 % and 71 % of the respondents’ practices, respectively. Generally, group practices have a significantly higher proportion of technical and electronical equipment than single prac- tices (Perner et al., 2016). Currently, a large proportion of external informa- tion to be used for herd management is received on pa- per or in pdf-format and is thus not further processible. Hence, both farmers and veterinarians desire the inte- gration of different data in platforms for data exchange or internet platforms (Table 1). More than 70 % of the veterinarians would like to get access to basic animal in- Data source Respondents Importance (% of answers) NImportant/very important Not important/no opinion Bact. milk analyses Veta 87.6 12.4 161 Farb 80.6 19.4 1514 Other Lab data Veta 77.3 22.7 154 Farb 62.9 37.1 1435 Disease status Veta 74.2 25.8 161 Fara 72.3 27.7 1514 Veterinarian Diagnoses1 Veta 72.9 27.1 155 Fara 73.4 26.6 1462 Bulk milk samples Veta 70.1 29.9 154 Farb 78.1 21.9 1510 Carcass disposal Veta 63.7 36.3 157 Farb 38.2 61.8 1402 EUROP grading (carcass) Veta 54.5 45.5 154 Fara 53.6 46.4 1402 Claw trimming Veta 48.7 51.3 152 Farb 38.7 61.3 1378 Performance recording data2 Vet 78.6 21.4 159 Basic animal information2 Vet 71.1 29.9 156 Table 1: Importance of integration of different data in platforms for data exchange or internet platforms for veterinarians (Vet) and Farmers (Far) in % (different superscripts within data source category indicate significant differences between Vet and Far based on a χ2-Test, p < 0.05) 1 – including the word treatments in question for veterinarians; 2 – already available for farmers Acta agriculturae Slovenica, Supplement 5 – 201610 B. FUERST-WALTL et al. formation and data of milk recording; both data sources are available for farmers. The highest interest of both groups is shown in bacteriological milk analyses and other lab data. Among veterinarians, 87.6 % and 77.3 % of respondents consider these data sources to be avail- able as important to very important. Farmers are sig- nificantly less interested; however, still 80.6 and 62.9 % would like to have access to laboratory data via plat- forms for data exchange or internet platforms. Informa- tion on carcass disposal and claw trimming are of least importance for farmers, the latter also for veterinarians. Nevertheless, more than one third to nearly half of the respondents would appreciate data integration for those traits as well. When asked for necessary developments, more than 66 % of veterinarians (N = 159) request developments enabling them to download raw data. Farmers have the highest interest (78.1 % important and very important) in better integration of data of already existing systems (e.g. milking, feeding, performance recording) in order to avoid multiple data capture. Multiple recording does not only affect the farmer but also other personnel, e.g. technicians of performance recording and breeding or- ganisations or claw trimmers. About one third of farmers stated that two or more persons (including the farmer) record diagnoses and drug receipts, inseminations and laboratory results (Weissensteiner et al., 2016) to name but a few. Veterinarians on the other hand partly record the same data by hand and by means of practice soft- ware. Slightly less than half of the veterinarians (49.1 %) spend more than one hour per day for fulfilling docu- mentation requirements while the majority of farmers need up to one hour (85.8 %, p < 0.001). The combination of data from different data sources could support both, veterinarians and farmers, in their day-to-day work. For veterinarians, increased knowledge regarding individual animals facilitates mak- ing diagnoses and subsequent treatments. For farmers, the abundance of different data offers the opportunity of appropriate benchmarking, which is limited in case of single parameters (e.g. Bradley et al., 2013), more rapid feedback and as a positive side-effect the reduction of required multiple recording. Finally, given that data security is granted, a signifi- cantly larger proportion of veterinarians than of farm- ers (72.1 % vs. 44.9 %) would be willing to provide data for scientific analyses. On the other hand, a much larger proportion of farmers approves of using data for genetic evaluation and across farm analyses by performance re- cording organisations (72.6 and 65.2 % of farmers, Weis- sensteiner et al., 2016, vs. 43.5 and 43.5 % of veterinar- ians, Perner et al. 2016). Nearly 61 % of farmers are also willing to provide data for use by their veterinarians. 4 CONCLUSIONS Based on the needs of the stakeholders an overall concept for an integrated data management tool shall be elaborated. Both farmers and veterinarians demand further developments, in particular in connection with easier access to data from different sources. Interest in animal health data is rapidly increasing for different reasons including food safety and animal welfare. Apart from harmonization across systems and organisations (e.g. trait definitions) the provision of interfaces or other possibilities for easy-handling data exchange is essential. Different farmers and veterinarians have different needs – hence additionally to raw data, formatted reports or pre-completed forms (e.g. for submitting milk samples for bacteriological analyses) will have to be available to fulfill stakeholders’ desires. Ideally, all relevant animal related data shall be accessible via a central database. However, in order to avoid loss of confidence, data secu- rity aspects need be payed particular attention. 5 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS We gratefully acknowledge the funding of the K- project ADDA – Advancement of Dairying in Austria. This project is supported by BMVIT (Austrian Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology), BMWFW (Federal Ministry of Science, Research and Economy), the province of Lower Austria and the city of Vienna in the framework of COMET ‐Competence Centers for Ex- cellent Technologies. The COMET program is handled by the FFG (Austrian Research Promotion Agency). Respondents Time needed for documentation (h/day) < 0.5 0.5–1 > 1–2 > 2 N P1 Farmers 40.3 45.6 12.0 2.1 1,738 Veterinarians 15.6 35.3 37.6 11.6 173 < 0.001 Table 2: Proportion of farmers and veterinarians (in %) and their time needed for documentation (in hours per day) 1 – based on a χ2-Test Acta agriculturae Slovenica, Supplement 5 – 2016 11 EXCHANGE OF DATA TO IMPROVE DAIRY CATTLE HEALTH: FARMERS’ AND VETERINARIANS’ NEEDS 6 REFERENCES Bradley, A.J., Breen, J.A., Hudson, C.D., Green, M.J. (2013). Benchmarking for health from the perspective of consult- ants. Challenges and benefits of health data recording in the context of food chain quality, management and breeding. In Proceedings of the ICAR Health Data Conference, 30–31 May 2013, Aarhus, Denmark, ICAR Technical Series no. 17, 159–166. Rome, IT: ICAR. Retrieved from http://www.icar. org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/tec_series_17_Aarhus. pdf. 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