Description: Abdomen hygiene (for EFSA on-farm assessment)

Method:
One side of the cow is assessed. Cows are considered dirty when at least 50% of the belly (i.e. the area between the front and rear legs) area covered with three-dimensional plaques of manure. Cows are considered very dirty when the entire belly is covered with three-dimensional plaques of manure. (Due to data limitations, some training images may also show beef cattle.)

Hygiene Score & Classification:
Based on the 4-point scale described by Ruud et al. (2010), where 1 = clean and 4 = very dirty. Since the percentage of cows with a score of ‚dirty‘ and ‚very dirty‘ is requested, the following simplification is applied:

  • Score 0 = clean, some dirt
  • Score 1 = dirty
  • Score 2 = very dirty