USO DELLA TERMOGRAFIA AD INFRAROSSI PER L’ANALISI DELLA TEMPERATURA SUPERFICIALE DEL CAPEZZOLO DI BUFALE SOTTOPOSTE A DIVERSE MODALITA’ DI MUNGITURA

The milking machine may affect blood and lymphatic circulation in teat walls, because the radial and longitudinal stretching action exerted by the milking vacuum, inducing teat congestion and oedema, altering the defence mechanisms against bacterial penetration of teat duct. Milking duration, pulsation parameters and vacuum levels have been recognized as factors influencing the integrity of teat tissues. Thermography is a non-contact, noninvasive technique that detects surface heat emitted as infrared radiation. Because skin temperature reflects the status of underlying tissue metabolism and blood circulation, abnormal thermal patterns can signify areas of superficial inflammation or circulatory impairments. The effect of milking procedures and liners on udder and teat skin temperature was investigated in buffaloes, showing short and longer-term tissue reactions to machine milking. The objective of this study was to evaluate the influence of the vacuum levels on udder and teat temperature changes during milking procedure via infrared thermography. Two groups of 14 buffaloes were milked at 42 kPa, high vacuum (HV) and, after 3 weeks of adaptation to progressively lower vacuum levels, at 36 kPa (LV), using the same pulsation parameters (60 cycles/min and 65:35 ratio). Milking was carried-out at intervals of 9 hours (daytime) and 15 hours (over-night). Tests were performed in a 28+28 units parallel parlour with low line milking system equipped with light weight clusters (1.78 kg), automatic cluster removers and electronic herd management system. Thermographic images (Flir System, ThermaCam P25) of teats (base-teat â BT; middle-teat â MT and tip-teat â TT) were taken pre-milking (PM), immediately after milking (IAM) and up to 5 minutes after milking (M+). Temperatures were recovered by processing the thermoimages in ThermaCam Researcher Basic 2.8 Software. The results of vacuum level effects on teat tissue temperature show evident differences among BT and TT, and among MT and TT in all stages.