Development of a real time cow gait tracking and analysing tool to assess lameness using a pressure sensitive walkway: the GAITWISE system

Cattle lameness causes considerable animal welfare problems and negatively affects the farm economy. Gait scoring techniques and claw health reports are commonly used for research and surveys, but few daily management solutions exist to monitor gait parameters from individual cows within a herd. A tool to automate and process the measurement of spatiotemporal kinematic and force variables was developed using a pressure sensitive walkway, commercial farm infrastructure and management tools. A fully automatic setup on ILVO’s experimental farm measures and analyses the gait of each cow that exits the milking parlour by registration of 20 basic kinematic gait variables. Based on this variable set, a wide range of typical gait parameters such as triple support time, abduction, etc. can be calculated. This paper presents some practical results and considerations related to this system of automated gait analysis. A first validation of the acquired variables shows that the Gaitwise system is capable of clustering observations in relation to the observer score with an overall sensitivity of 76–90% and specificity of 86–100%. Variables of asymmetry and speed seem most promising for further research on the detection of lameness. For future reference, the resulting cow gait variables will be stored for time series analysis to detect changes in individual cow walking behaviour in relation to any source (claw lesions, gestation stage, etc.). Such measurements could provide valuable information for management, veterinary check-ups and further research for automatic lameness detection in cattle.