Estimating costs and prevalence of claw disorders in young stock

Abstract

Claw disorders in dairy cattle are an important health problem, both economically and for animal welfare. It is known that claw disorders start already at a young age, and that claw disorders developed before calving are still present after calving. The aim of this study was to get an impression of the magnitude of claw disorders in young stock and its associated costs with the estimates of veterinarians and hoof trimmers. Data were obtained through an online survey for veterinarians and hoof trimmers working in the Netherlands. The survey contained questions about the prevalence of claw disorders in different age classes, the most common kind of claw disorders and the estimation of the total costs of claw disorders in young stock. The data has been analyzed using SPSS. The results show that both veterinarians and hoof trimmers think that claw disorders are a problem in young stock, especially after the age of 10 months. There was a large variation in the estimated total costs which implies that both veterinarians and hoof trimmers have difficulties estimating the total costs of claw disorders in young stock. Estimates of the prevalence of the current study are comparable with results found in previous studies.