Why the Concern about Hoof Health?

Lameness is one of most common primary reasons that cows are culled from Ontario dairy herds. In addition, many cows that are culled for reproductive failure have failed to become pregnant because they are lame. Lameness is also an indirect cause of culling for other infectious diseases such as mastitis, by weakening the immune system.

Apart from its direct and indirect effects on forced (involuntary) culling, lameness in cows remaining in the herd is costly in terms of milk production loss, reduced reproductive success and treatment costs. It has been estimated that, on average, an individual case of lameness costs the dairy operation approximately $400. Lameness is also the dairy industry’s most visible animal welfare problem. Most cases of dairy cattle lameness are due to structural damage to and/or infections of hoof (claw) tissues. Hoof lesion data currently being collected by hoof trimmers in Alberta and British Columbia indicates that digital dermatitis (DD)

is by far the most common lesion among the cows examined. Next in order of prevalence are 4 lesions related to ‘claw horn disruption’: sole ulcer, white line lesion, sole hemorrhage and toe ulcer. The table on the right summarizes the data collected up until September 2011.

Many studies, in both North America and Europe, have demonstrated that producers significantly underestimate the incidence of hoof health problems in their herds. Surveys like those being conducted in Western Canada and Ontario will estimate the real scope of hoof lesions in our dairy herds and ident