Title
Evaluation of treatments for claw horn lesions in dairy cows in a randomized controlled trial
Date Issued
01 July 2015
Access level
open access
Resource Type
journal article
Author(s)
Thomas H.J.
Bollard N.J.
Archer S.C.
Bell N.J.
Mason C.
Maxwell O.J.R.
Remnant J.G.
Sleeman P.
Whay H.R.
Huxley J.N.
Universidad de Nottingham
Publisher(s)
Elsevier Inc.
Abstract
Lameness is one of the most significant endemic disease problems facing the dairy industry. Claw horn lesions (principally sole hemorrhage, sole ulcer, and white line disease) are some of the most prevalent conditions. Despite the fact that thousands of animals are treated for these conditions every year, experimental evidence is limited on the most effective treatment protocols. A randomized, positively controlled clinical trial was conducted to test the recovery of newly lame cows with claw horn lesions. Animals on 5 farms were locomotion scored every 2. wk. Cows were eligible for recruitment if they had 2 nonlame scores followed by a lame score and had a claw horn lesion on a single claw of a single foot. Following a therapeutic trim, enrolled cows were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 treatments: treatment 1-no further treatment (positive control; TRM), treatment 2-trim plus a block on the sound claw (TB), treatment 3-trim plus a 3-d course of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) ketoprofen (TN), treatment 4-trim plus a block plus ketoprofen (TBN). The primary outcome measure was locomotion score 35. d after treatment, by an observer blind to treatment group. Descriptive statistics suggested that treatment groups were balanced at the time of enrollment, that is, randomization was successful. Based on a sound locomotion score (score 0) 35. d after treatment, the number of cures was 11 of 45 (24.4%) for TRM, 14 of 39 (35.9%) for TB, 12 of 42 (28.6%) for TN, and 23 of 41 (56.1%) for TBN. The difference between TBN and TRM was significant. To test for confounding imbalances between treatment groups, logistic regression models were built with 2 outcomes, either sound (score 0) or nonlame (score 0 or 1) 35. d after treatment. Compared with TRM, animals that received TBN were significantly more likely to cure to a sound outcome. Farm, treatment season, lesion diagnosis, limb affected, treatment operator, and stage of lactation were included in the final models. Our work suggests that lameness cure is maximized with NSAID treatment in addition to the common practices of therapeutic trimming and elevation of the diseased claw using a block when cows are newly and predominantly mildly lame.
Start page
4477
End page
4486
Volume
98
Issue
7
Language
English
OCDE Knowledge area
Ciencia veterinaria
Scopus EID
2-s2.0-84924272043
PubMed ID
Source
Journal of Dairy Science
ISSN of the container
00220302
Source funding
Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board
Sponsor(s)
The work reported here was funded by DairyCo ( www.dairyco.org.uk , www.ahdb.org.uk ), a levy-funded, not-for-profit organization working on behalf of British dairy farmers and a division of the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board.
Sources of information: Directorio de Producción Científica Scopus