@article{arpin_responses_2026,

title = {Responses of dairy cows following a change in housing system and social group: a living lab experiment},

author = {Catherine Arpin and Marjorie Cellier and Tania Wolfe and Hayda Almeida and Celia Julliot and Marianne Villettaz Robichaud and Abdoulaye Baniré Diallo and Elsa Vasseur},

url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.30.702528v1},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.30.702528},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-02-01},

publisher = {BioRxive},

abstract = {To investigate how the disturbances associated with a relocation to a bedded-pack barn, such as a housing system change, a milking system change and a social regrouping, impacts the behavior of lactating dairy cows, 38 cows from a total of 9 tie-stall or free-stall commercial farms were moved to a newly built bedded-pack barn on an enrollment basis, with a social regrouping occurring after 2 weeks. Scan sampling of video data was done to assess behavior expression in the pen, and live data was collected to assess milking reactivity and animal handling procedures. Results indicate that the cows adapted quickly to the relocation to the new housing system as there were no changes in the locations in the pen, the body positions or the behaviors of cows in time between arrival and regrouping. The social regrouping had a bigger impact with a decrease in 16% of the observed time spent lying and an increase of 9.7% of the observed time spent feeding. Cows also adapted quickly to the milking procedures with a rapid decrease in the occurrence of negative social interactions between cows at the parlor, and in needing less human-animal manipulations and less time to be brought to the parlor. The housing system of origin had a slight effect on behaviors with cows from tie-stalls spending 1.7 times more of the observed time lying than free-stall cows, and free-stall cows spending 1.6 times more of the observed time feeding than tie-stall cows. This study provides a better understanding of how dairy cows respond to disturbances and is encouraging for producers that need to make changes to their current housing system as cows were shown to be quickly adaptable to the challenges presented to them.},

keywords = {Preprint},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{mokhtarnazif_discovering_2026,

title = {Discovering subclinical effects of limited outdoor access on gait and hoof health of cows housed in movement-restricted environments},

author = {Shabnaz Mokhtarnazif and Amir Nejati and Elise Shepley and Gabriel M. Dallago and Abdoulaye B. Diallo and Elsa Vasseur},

url = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.01.28.702303v1},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.64898/2026.01.28.702303},

year  = {2026},

date = {2026-01-01},

publisher = {BioRxive},

abstract = {Most common housing systems for dairy cows restrict their movement, which can influence welfare, gait, and hoof health of dairy cows. Outdoor access has been proposed as a management practice to offset these restrictions, but reported effects on cows’ locomotion vary and may not always be captured by traditional clinical assessments. In this study, we investigated gait and hoof through clinical (i.e., visual locomotion scoring and hoof lesion assessment) and subclinical (3D motion analysis, kinetic assessment, hoof infrared thermography and measuring claw conformation) methods to assess how limited provision of outdoor access affects non-lame cows housed in movement restricted environment. Thirty-six Holstein tie-stall cows were either given 1day/week (EX1) or 3days/week (EX3) of outdoor access (1h/day) during 5 consecutive weeks. Clinical and subclinical assessments of gait and hoof were performed before (Pre-trial), after 5 weeks of outing (Post-trial) and 8 weeks after outing (Follow-up). The results of this study revealed no clinical effect of outdoor access on cows’ locomotion score and hoof lesion prevalence. However, for subclinical assessment, both groups showed an increase in stride and stance time at Post-trial, with an increase in pressure applied by cows while standing in EX3 group and a reduction in coronary band temperature in both groups at Post-trial and Follow-up. Contact area and claw conformation changed after provision of outdoor access in both groups. This study illustrates that with the use of subclinical methods; we can reveal effects of outdoor access on gait and hoof health that might not be visible using the traditional methods.},

keywords = {Preprint},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}

@article{julliot_use_2025,

title = {The use of kinematics to quantify gait attributes and predict gait scores in dairy cows},

author = {Celia Julliot and Gabriel M. Dallago and Amir Nejati and Abdoulaye B. Diallo and Elsa Vasseur},

url = {https://arxiv.org/abs/2512.17847},

doi = {https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2512.17847},

year  = {2025},

date = {2025-12-01},

journal = {arXive},

publisher = {arXive},

abstract = {Detecting walking pattern abnormalities in dairy cows early on holds the potential to reduce the occurrence of clinical lameness. This study aimed to predict gait scores in non-clinically lame dairy cows by using gait attributes based on kinematic data. Markers were placed on 20 anatomical landmarks on 12 dairy cows. The cows were walked multiple times through a corridor while recorded by six cameras, representing 69 passages. Specific gait attributes were computed from the 3D coordinates of the hoof markers. Gait was visually assessed using a 5-point numerical rating system (NRS). Due to the limited number of observations with NRS lower than 2 (n = 1) and higher than 3 (n = 6), the NRS labels were combined into three groups, representing NRS <= 2},

keywords = {Preprint},

pubstate = {published},

tppubtype = {article}

}