The relationship between Digital Dermatitis and other claw disorders.

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between DD and other claw disorders at the moment of routine claw trimming. Between June 2017 and July 2018, data of the presence of claw disorders was collected at 80 farms in the Netherlands spread over the country. Interns of GD Animal Health collected data of DD lesions based on the M-scoring method described by Döpfer et al. (1997) and modified by Berry et al. (2010), (1,2). Data of other claw disorders is collected using Digiklauw by certified claw trimmers of the agricultural business care organization AB. The mean heard size of the study population was 81 cows. An inter-observer agreement between the interns of GD Animal Health for the scoring of DD using the M-score method was performed and the overall result was moderate (k=0.51). DD was present in 51% of the study population according to the M-scoring method, where 23% had a lesion on 1 foot and 28% had lesions on both feet. The cow-level herd prevalence varied between herds from 8% to 93%. In 20,8% of the cows that had DD, IDD was also present. An increased risk for having IDD was found when DD is present at the moment of routine claw trimming (OR=9.11). In 11,2% of the cows that had DD, IH was present. An increased risk for having IH was found when DD is present at the moment of routine claw trimming (OR=5.18).