Evaluation of the Frequency of Hoof Injuries in Iran Dairy Cattle

Infectious and noninfectious causes of lameness result in economic losses in the dairy industry. Digital dermatitis (DD), interdigital necrobacillosis (IDNB) and heel erosion (HE) are considered as the most important infectious causes of lameness.

Current study was done in order to evaluate annual incidence of infectious causes of lameness in four different dairy farms in Charmahal & Bakhtiari, Esfahan, Khorasan Razavi and Mazandaran provinces of Iran.

Records of 71896 hoof trimming and inspections during 2012-2013 on 10100 dairy cows were recorded and analyzed. All information was recorded by professional hoof trimmers and veterinarians during study.

Heel erosions (HE) were recorded between 0-13, DD between 0-145 and IDNB between 0-47 cases in each month in different dairy farms that were significantly different. Digital dermatitis (DD) in spring (8.62 percent), IDNB in winter (2.79 percent) and HE in spring (0.68 percent) show the highest seasonal incidence; however, seasonal incidence of infectious causes of lameness were significantly different. Total incidence of 19.18 and 17.45 percent were recorded in 2012 and 2013 that was significantly different for DD. Distribution of infectious lesions were different among different dairy farms as annual incidence of DD was recorded as 32.97 and 30.1 in farm 3 and 0.93 and 0.68 in farm 2 in 2012 and 2013 respectively.

The present survey showed that overall, 20 percent incidence of infectious lesions plays a very important role in financial losses of large dairy farms and needs special attention.