Abstract
BackgroundLaminitis and energy-related postpartum diseases share several risk factors, indicating a common etiology. Thus, a herd’s incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, such as displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis, might reflect the likelihood of cows to suffer from laminitis-related claw lesions. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between herd-level incidence rate of displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis, general risk factors, and claw lesions in individual cows recorded at maintenance claw trimming.MethodsThe dataset consisted of 6773 trimmings, performed between 2004 and 2006 by professional trimmers, from 3607 Swedish Red and Swedish Holstein cows in 26 herds. The herds were classified as having a high, inconsistent-high or low incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, based on the number of recorded cases of veterinary-diagnosed displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis in the Swedish national animal disease recording system during 2002 to 2006, and observations and interviews in connections with herd visits. Generalized linear mixed models were used to investigate the association between herd-level incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases and laminitis-related lesions including sole ulcer and sole hemorrhage; and hygiene-related lesions including interdigital dermatitis, digital dermatitis, heel-horn erosion, verrucose dermatitis, and interdigital hyperplasia; and absence of any claw lesion. Systematic effects, including first-order interactions, with P < 0.05 were included in the models. Herd classification was forced into the models, and a random effect of herd was included.ResultsIn comparison to herds with a high incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, low-incidence herds showed a lower odds ratio (OR; 0.2) for laminitis-related lesions in cows trimmed during the summer months. Low-incidence herds also showed numerically lower OR estimates for laminitis-related lesions in all parity classes and a numerically lower OR for hygiene-related lesions. In addition, low-incidence herds showed tendencies towards a numerically higher OR for absence of any lesion, irrespective of trimming season or parity.ConclusionsOnly a few statistically significant associations were found, but several tendencies pointed towards better claw health in herds with low as compared with high incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases.
Highlights
Laminitis and energy-related postpartum diseases share several risk factors, indicating a common etiology
Clinical ketosis was defined as cows in early lactation with inappetence, depressed general condition and reduced milk yield and tested positive for ketone bodies in milk, where the veterinarian found no other explanation for the symptoms
Four herds were defined as having a low incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, and 7% of the trimmings were performed in these herds
Summary
Laminitis and energy-related postpartum diseases share several risk factors, indicating a common etiology. A herd’s incidence rate of energy-related postpartum diseases, such as displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis, might reflect the likelihood of cows to suffer from laminitis-related claw lesions. The aim of this study was to investigate the association between herd-level incidence rate of displaced abomasum and clinical ketosis, general risk factors, and claw lesions in individual cows recorded at maintenance claw trimming. A prevalence study based on protocols from maintenance claw trimmings demonstrated that 72% of Swedish dairy cows had at least one claw lesion [3]. This figure is in agreement with the prevalence reported in contemporary Western European studies [4,5]. The cost of lameness has been estimated at €192 per first lactational incidence in Denmark [14] and of claw disorders (clinical and subclinical) at $75 per cow and year for the average farm in the Netherlands [15]
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