Epidemiologic evaluation of interdigital hyperplasia operation by the method of Reudink. A survival analysis

Abstract

The survival of 51 Dairy cows in Dutch herd that were operated for interdigital hyperplasia is compared with not treated dairy cows, matched for herd, parity, lactation worth, and days in milk. De removal of the interdigital hyperplasia was performed by four different surgeons in four different practices in the Netherlands. The principal method of removal of the interdigital hyperplasia was comparable. However a higher risk of culling could not be estimated significantly, because the research did not achieve the power it would have needed, this research shows that the mean survival time of the operated cows is a little longer than of control cows. The median survival period of the operated cows was 539 days which is a little lower than in the cows in the control group, which was respectively 839, 741 or 730 days .