Effect of intensive application of topical treatments in the milking parlor on the prevalence of Digital Dermatitis

Abstract

Digital Dermatitis (DD) is an infectious claw disease of cattle, reported as having a high prevalence in several countries. Currently, some different types of topical treatments are available on the market, but not all as effective. The objective of this study was to evaluate the prevalence of DD before and after intensive use of the topical treatments with four different products for DD in the milking parlor on 10 farms in Alberta, Canada. Subsequently, the effect of the treatments was determined on the distribution of each M-stage on every of the 10 farms. To achieve this all the hind feet were scored weekly in the milking parlor. In the first week if a DD lesion was present it was randomly assigned to one of the four different topical treatments: HealMaxTM, Hoof-Sol, negative control (saline with green food coloring), and positive control (oxytetracycline spray). All lesions were examined for 8 weeks, and if not cured re-treated with the same treatment as in the first week. There was no difference in overall DD prevalence after eight weeks of topical treatments over the 10 farms (P=0.13). However, the prevalence of chronic lesions (M4) increased on every farm, whereas the prevalence of active lesions (M2 and M4.1) decreased (P<0.05). Eight weeks of topical treatments under field conditions did decrease the prevalence of active lesions in a herd, but did not decrease the overall DD prevalence on a farm.