Impacts of Lameness – Part 1: Preventing Lame Cows

Introduction

Lameness is characterized as a painful injury or disease of the foot or leg that causes an alteration in a cow's gait (Olechnowicz and Jaskowski, 2011). In the United States, the prevalence of lameness on dairies ranges from 13 to 55% (von Keyserlingk et al., 2012; Hoffman et al., 2014; Cook et al., 2016). Lameness is widespread in dairy cows kept in loose housing as well as pasture and is one of the three major causes contributing to early culling. Incidence of lameness typically peaks around 3 to 4 months of lactation. It is most often seen in cows with high milk yields at the beginning of lactation and in cows that have a low body condition score shortly before or at calving.

Over 90% of lameness cases are caused by claw disorders including, but not limited to white line defects, foot rot, laminitis, and sole ulcers (Phillips, 2002). Claw disorders that lead to cows becoming lame can be caused by either infectious or non-infectious routes. Examples of lameness caused be infectious routes are digital dermatitis and foot rot. Examples of lameness caused be non-infectious routes are sole ulcers, laminitis, and white line disease. Most often the issue is stemming from the outside of the claw in the hind feet. Both environmental and cow-level factors can affect the development of claw disorders. Cow-level factors include parity, stage of lactation, body weight, and genetics (Vermunt and Greenough, 1994) and environmental factors include housing, management, and nutrition. Potential risks can arise from the type of flooring in the housing facility, barn hygiene, trauma to the feet and legs, handling of cows, cow comfort, lack of effective fiber in the ration, poor feeding management, metabolic disorders, and infectious diseases. Lameness is often multifactorial, meaning that a number of these factors could be contributing to the issue.

Lameness can interfere with the ability for cows to exhibit natural behaviors by altering lying time, social interaction, estrus intensity, and rumination behavior making it a major welfare concern (Whay and Shearer, 2017). In addition to the cow comfort concerns, milk yield may decrease especially for cows in their 2^nd lactation or greater (Warnick et al., 2001). Lame cows may spend less time at the feed bunk therefore, they may have a decreased dry matter intake followed by a reduction in milk yield. A case of lameness can cost anywhere from $90 to $400 per case (Cha et al., 2010). Factors such as treatment costs, decreased milk production, potential nonsalable milk due to treatment, reduced reproductive performance, extra labor cost, veterinarian expenses, and increased death or culling risk, lameness can lead to a huge economic loss for a dairy operation. For example, if you have a 200-cow herd with a 20% incidence rate at just $90 per case, that still equates to $3,600 per year. Depending on the severity of the case the economic impact could become even more severe.

Strategies to Prevent Lameness

Lameness management consists of both prevention and treatment. Preventing lameness by implementing early intervention strategies is an important aspect of a dairy operation and is critical for the profitability of the farm. Lameness can arise from many different sources making it important to assess specific areas of the farm that could contribute to poor foot health. Strategies that can be used to decrease the prevalence of lameness include:

• Hoof trimming- Maintenance hoof trimming should be scheduled twice a year and when needed for corrective purposes.
• Nutrition- Include the appropriate amount of trace minerals and effective fiber in the ration, feed at consistent times each day and be sure the ration is mixed well to prevent cows from sorting.
• Barn hygiene- Scrape barns multiple times a day to avoid manure build-up on hooves and be sure to use enough bedding to keep stalls dry. Fix poorly drained areas where water pools and ventilate barns appropriately to minimize humidity and moisture
• Footbath- The sizing, location, and schedule of the footbath are important factors to consider as well as the chemical used in the footbath. Footbaths are used to minimize the spread of new infections and are not a treatment for infections. A footbath should be a minimum of 10 feet long (enough for two immersions per foot), between 24 to 32 inches wide, a minimum of 5 inches deep, and located in an accessible walkway that only allows one cow to pass through at a time. The solution should be changed after every 150 to 200 cows or sooner if needed. The number of times a footbath should be used each week is determined by the solution used. Many different solutions are available to use, thorough research of the product of interest is important to check effectiveness and be aware of the dilution and mixing directions.

• Time away from stalls- Limit time (less than 3 hours) standing on hard surfaces such as in the holding area or in the headlocks. All holding areas and walking surfaces should be grooved to prevent cows from slipping. Installation of rubber flooring in certain areas may be advantageous.
• Cow comfort- Stalls should be clean, dry, and comfortable and should provide enough lunge space for the cow to stand up easily. Avoid overstocking of barns as this can lead to increased standing time.
• Heat abatement- In periods of heat stress cows will stand more often in order to increase their surface area for wind to cool them. Providing shade, fans, and sprinklers will cool cows off and encourage them to spend more time lying down.
• Transition period- The first 60 days in milk are an abrupt transition that can cause cows to lose too much body condition and acquire post-calving metabolic disorders (ketosis, milk fever), both can make cows more likely to become lame. Good transition cow management is an important aspect of lameness management.

Summary

Lameness is a clear sign that an animal is experiencing pain making this an important animal welfare concern. Lame cows can be present in all types of dairy operations and can lead to a decrease in milk production, decreased reproductive performance, and an economic loss for the producer. By implementing these lameness prevention strategies, the incidence and severity of lameness and the economic loss associated with lameness in dairy cattle can be reduced.

References

Cha, E., J.A. Hertl, D. Bar, Y.T. Gröhn. 2010. The cost of different types of lameness in dairy cows calculated by dynamic programming. Prev. Vet. Med. 97: 1-8.

Cook, N. B., J. P. Hess, M. R. Foy, T. B. Bennett, and R. L. Brotzman. 2016. Management characteristics, lameness, and body injuries of dairy cattle housed in high-performance dairy herds in Wisconsin. J. Dairy Sci. 99:5879–5891.

Hoffman, A. C., J. R. Wenz, J. Vanegas, and D. A. Moore. 2014. Estimated prevalence of lameness in 53 Northwest US dairy herds. Bovine Pract. 48:89–94.

Olechnowicz, J. and J. M. Jaskowski. 2011. Reasons for culling, culling due to lameness, and economic losses in dairy cows. Medycyna Weterynaryjna. 67: 618–621

Phillips, C. 2002. The Welfare of Dairy Cows. Cattle Behaviour and Welfare (Second ed.), Blackwell Science Ltd., Hoboken, NJ.

Vermunt, J. J. and P.R. Greenough. 1994. Predisposing factors of laminitis in cattle. Br. Vet. J. 150: 151-164.

von  Keyserlingk, M. A. G., A.  Barrientos, K. Ito, E. Galo, and D.  M. Weary. 2012. Benchmarking cow comfort on North American freestall dairies: Lameness, leg injuries, lying time, facility design, and management for high-producing Holstein dairy cows. J. Dairy Sci. 95:7399–7408.