| dc.description.abstract | INTRODUCTION Udder Cleft Dermatitis (UCD) is an inflammatory skin disease, often located between the front quarters of the udder and the abdomen, which affects milk production and quality, and animal welfare. Several risk factors have been identified and prevalence of UCD in the Netherlands is high. There are multiple ways to categorize UCD based on the severity of the disease. Bovine Digital Dermatitis (DD) is a multifactorial skin disease with an important bacterial component, causing skin damage of the heels, pain and it is an important cause of lameness in dairy cattle, resulting in reduced welfare and economic loss. UCD is often present in herds where DD is endemic. It is suggested that there could be a correlation between UCD and DD.
AIMS The objective of this study is to investigate if there is an association between the prevalence of DD and UCD at the moment of herd hoof trimming on herd-level and on cow-level.
METHODS Seven Dutch dairy herds, selected because of DD being present in their herds, were investigated on the prevalence of DD and UCD. Data were collected during a hoof trimming-session of all lactating cattle of the herd. Hind legs were examined using a scoring system for DD and the udder of the cows was simultaneously scored for UCD, of which a photograph was taken. After correction for missing data, the data were reshaped into binary data; UCD 0 when score 0 was given, and UCD 1 when any of the other scores were given (1 to 3). The data of DD-scores were converted into cow-data by giving the cows a binary score of 0, when M0 was scored on both feet, and as 1 when one or both hind feet had any of the other M-scores (1 to 5). An ordinal scale was also developed. Three classes were made for both DD and UCD. Logistic regression models were used to determine the odds ratio to see if there was an association between the prevalence of DD and UCD.
RESULTS In total 535 cows were inspected. For UCD 90% was healthy (i.e. no UCD, 483/535), 4% (24/535) was suffering from mild UCD and 5% (28/535) was affected by severe UCD. For DD 1070 hind feet were scored: 67% (719/1070) was healthy, 20.7% (221/1070) had active lesions and 10.5% (130/1070) had chronic lesions. DD cow-data showed that out of the 535 cows, 55% (293/535) was healthy (i.e. no DD), 33% (179/535) was suffering from active DD and almost 12% (63/535) was affected by chronic DD. Statistical analysis showed that the odds of having UCD when no DD is present was 0.11 (0.07-0.16) and was found significant. The odds ratio for having UCD when also having DD was 0.88 (0.49 to 1.56), but this was not significant. Adjusting the model with “Farm” as a random variable resulted in a significant odds ratio of 0.097 (0.03-0.21).
CONCLUSION There seems to be an negative association between the prevalence of DD and UCD and having DD does not present a higher risk for the development of UCD (OR 0.11). The OR for chronic DD and UCD was higher than 1 (1.28), so perhaps chronic DD does have some association with UCD, but this was not significant. | |
