Lame Dairy Cows

From time to time I go to meetings to find out about new things that are going on in the Veterinary world. Last night I went to a meeting about lameness in dairy cows, with the hope that I might pick up some new ideas to pass on to you. The speaker was Nick Bell from the Royal Veterinary College in London who has been working on this problem for some time now. It has long been known that on average 20% of dairy cows show some degree of lameness and this has an impact on their welfare as well as on their milk production.

Understanding the Problem

It would seem to me that we have made little progress over the past thirty years about understanding lameness and the way to prevent it. There have been improvements in the way that cows are housed and buildings are designed to help the flow of animals for milking, feeding and drinking. It is still not easy to get a surface that is resistant to wear which cattle can walk on comfortably without damaging their feet.

Foot Trimming

The recommendations are that high yielding dairy cows do not have their feet trimmed at all in the first eighty days of lactation as during that time the horn is wearing away as quickly as it is replaced so it will take too long to re grow. The most efficient time for foot inspection and possible trimming is four weeks before drying off. The aim should be to keep the feet as dry as possible, repair any areas where the concrete is damaged promptly and groove any places where it is worn and they cannot get a good grip.

Daily Treatments

The aim should be that all of the cows should pass through a foot bath with 5% formalin once every day. There was some discussion as the whether it was advantageous to use a foot bath with just water in first to pre wash the feet and keep the treatment footbath cleaner, but this did not give any noticeable benefits. It has been found that the formalin could be diluted down to 3% after a while if you are clear of problems, below 2% it will have little effect so you will need to calculate the amounts carefully.

On some farms they recommend copper sulphate or even a mixture of copper sulphate and formalin. I was a bit surprised to learn that essentially we are still using the same strategies that were used fifty years ago as dairy cows have changed considerably in that time. Formalin has long been under threat of disappearing as there are health and safety issues that have to be taken into consideration. It is not the most pleasant of chemicals to work with or dispose of. I cannot help thinking that there must be some chemical or food additive that could do a better job than formalin or copper sulphate.

New Ideas

At one time there was talk about developing a vaccine against digital dermatitis as it tends to be young cows and brought in individuals that have the most problems with this infection. Older animals seem to be able to resist the infection. There does not seem to be any progress with this, but it has been noted that some family lines are resistant to developing the disease and there is hope that in the future bulls will be selected that can pass this trait on to their off spring.

Sheep Meeting

This years Moredun meeting at Welshpool Market on Tuesday 23^rd November is about the effective control of liver fluke in sheep. The meeting starts at 7.30 pm and is open to all. The speakers will be Philip Duce from the Moredun who will give a view of the national situation and Arthur Otter from Animal Health and The Veterinary Laboratories Agency in Shrewsbury who will keep us updated on the incidence of liver fluke locally. You may feel that this year the risk from fluke will have dropped away as there has been so little rainfall and those little water snails have gone deep into the soil out of harms way to find moisture. Most farms have seen poor grass growth so some ewes may have grazed wet areas that they would not normally do. The adult fluke will stay in the liver from last year so the damage builds up as the ewes get older. Many areas have had normal or high rainfall this summer and it is often brought in animals that spread the disease to your farm. Cattle do pick up fluke, but they have such big livers that they can carry a significant infection without showing any detrimental effects of the disease.

Poultry Register

I have a few chickens and ducks so some time ago I registered them with DEFRA so that I can keep a check on any disease alerts that might come our way. It is not strictly speaking necessary to register small flocks less than fifty birds, but many people do as it is easy online and they take an e mail address and mobile number for a quick contact if anything should happen.

There are two diseases that are a particular problem to birds because they are so infectious. Fortunately Newcastle Disease and the virulent forms of Avian Influenza do not crop up too often, but if they do it is important to know where all of the flocks are however small to stop the spread of infection to bigger poultry units in our area.

Llamas and Alpacas

As you will know for some time now all keepers of farm animals have been obliged to have a holding number and register the animals that they keep. The main reason for doing this is for Animal Health to monitor animal movements and control notifiable diseases. In 2001 during the Foot and Mouth outbreak there was great concern that keepers of small numbers of sheep and goats, and those with pet pigs were overlooked when disease control measures were put in place. Fortunately most of these animals were found and inspected to make sure that they were healthy.

Exceptions

What I cannot understand is why none of the Llamas and Alpacas that are now so popular have been registered. These animals as you know have little resistance to tuberculosis which is causing so many problems in our area at the moment. Camelids are affected by Foot and Mouth Disease in the same way as any other farmed animal. There is no artificial insemination for camelids so it is common practice for stud males to travel long distances to service waiting females. The vets that work for Animal Health are few and far between now. They cover a wide area over three counties and seldom get to visit farms now. Major disease outbreaks are controlled from their computer screens and we cannot expect satisfactory outcomes if significant numbers of susceptible animals are overlooked.

Disease Alerts

Things have been very quiet as far as notifiable diseases are concerned for the past year we have not been bothered by Bluetongue, Foot and Mouth Disease or any of the Influenzas, long may it continue.

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