Study on Distribution of Dairy Cattle Hoof Lesions and its Relation to Locomotion Scoring

To evaluate the most important bovine digital lesions in shahrekord area andits correlation with locomotion scoring.Study Design- Cross- Sectional descriptive study.Animals- five hundred and eighteen cows inspected in two seasons.Methods- Three dairy farms on three scales (1: Large, approximately 900 milking cows,2: Medium, approximately 100 milking cows, and 3: Small, approximately 20 milkingcows) were watched for lameness in 2005-2006. Locomotion scoring by Sprecher method(1-5 point scale) has been done for detection of lameness. Digital lesions in according tothe area have been recorded. Sole ulcer, double sole and digital dermatitis were watchedduring study. Results were compared in different scores, parities, and days in milk (DIM).Results- Forty eight percent of the inspected hooves affected with different digital lesionsin autumn that was lower than spring (58.8%). No statistical difference betweenprevalence of each disease were recorded between autumn and spring (P 0.05). Cows inscore 1-5 were as 43.6, 46.9, 52.9, 61.8 and 77.7 % respectively, the number of affecteddigits (AD) significantly increased with the scores. More digital lesions were recorded incows with higher scores. Digital Dermatitis (DD), sole ulcer (SU) and double sole (DS)show a significant difference between different scores as the highest distribution recordedin score 3. By increasing the locomotion scores (LS) the percent of the lesions like DDand DS return to its original or lower than original level, but in SU the percent of thedisease is still higher than percent of the animals in score 1 (P 0.05) that show the betterability of the scoring system in predicting SU. DD and DS was reduced significantly by increasing the parity, but SU significantly were increased by increasing the parity(P 0.05). No significant effect of days in milk has been detected on the prevalence oflesions under study, but descriptively most lesion was recorded in 31-60 days afterparturition. Although percent of lesions decreased by parity but this decrease was notsignificant.Conclusions and Clinical Relevance- Digital dermatitis is the most prevalent lesion ofthe hooves in Shahrekord area. Lameness scoring is a reasonable tool in investigation ofthe lameness that is specially capable of detecting heel horn erosions like sole ulcer.