Ergonomic postures assessment of workers during milking of she asses

The aim of this study is to examine the work position of the workers during the milking of sheasses due at risks deriving from repetitive upper limb movements. The assessment concerns the whole daily exposure to risk, taking into account the other activities carried out by the worker, that are strictly connected with milking. The analysis carried out in this paper will be useful to the farm in perspective of a plan based on increasing of head in number. We selected three typical farms situated in Eastern Sicily (Italy). The first was on the slope of Mt. Etna at 550 m a.s.l.. It has around 80 heads, 40 adult female (18 – 20 in lactation), the second farm has around 12 female in lactation and is equipped with a bucket milking machine, while the third farm has 8-10 female in lactation and the milking is performed manually. We assessed the musculoskeletal risk to the upper limbs by means of the OCRA Checklist (Colombini et al., 2005). The tasks processes were broken down into fundamental phases (CIOSTA – AIGR methodology). The examination of video films shot during the work period made it possible to deduce or confirm information about frequency, posture and the stereotypical nature of the work. The research shows that in she-asses farming workers are exposed to musculoskeletal risks due to repetitive movements and incorrect postures. Those equipped with a milking parlour with pit parlour show the same problems observed in cow farming, but the small number of head per farm makes small the connected health problems.