The presence of foreign metallic bodies through abdominal metal detector examination in high yielding dairy cattle (> 9,000 kg milk/lactation) under free-stall and TMR-feeding with a mixer wagon was evaluated. The occurrence of foreign metallic bodies in the years 2005 and 2006 was, respectively, 83.67% and 51.52%, with a maximum of amperage measured during examination of 9.36 ± 7.54 µA in 49 cows in 2005 equal to 6.44 ± 7.54 µA in 66 cows in 2006. A total of 44% (33/75) of the cows presented the foreign body in the reticulum (between the fifth and seventh intercostal space) and 56% (42/75) in the rumen. The presence of foreign metallic bodies in most of the animals of the examined herd, after exclusion of other possible causes, was due to failures in the maintenance of the mixer wagon.
Cattle; metal detector; forestomachs