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Prevalence of lameness and hoof lesions in all year-round grazing cattle in Brazil

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Abstract

Lameness is a growing concern to the dairy industry worldwide. However, little is known about lameness and its causes in grazing cattle, especially in tropical climates. This study aimed to assess the prevalence of hoof lesions and lameness in dairy herds of all year-round grazing cattle under tropical condition, and to identify the main lesions associated with lameness. We visited 48 farms located in the Minas Gerais state, Brazil, equally divided into four groups based on daily milk production. All lactating cows in the visited farms were locomotion scored, and a representative sample was randomly chosen for hoof inspection. Among the 2267 lactating cows evaluated, 16% were scored as lame and 7% as severely lame. Nearly all cows presented at least one type of hoof lesion, of which heel horn erosion (90%), white line fissure (50%), and digital dermatitis (33%) were the most prevalent. Heel horn erosion was present in all farms and digital dermatitis was present in 96% of the farms. Sole ulcer was observed in a single animal. Additionally, digital dermatitis and white line fissure were correlated to a 2.5 times increase in the odds of a poor mobility score. Collectively, our results demonstrate that digital dermatitis and white line fissure are the main concern and the biggest cause of lameness in grazing cattle under tropical conditions.

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Acknowledgements

The authors gratefully acknowledge the cooperation of the owners, herdsmen, and staff of all the visited farms who kindly welcomed us. The authors wish to thank the cooperation from COOPRATA, the directors, and staff who provided all the help for conducting this study. Special thanks to the hoof trimmers Eder Gomes and Lázaro Júnior for their great help. We also acknowledge the National Council for the Improvement of Higher Education (CAPES), the Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais and Pro-Reitoria de Pesquisa for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Universidade de Vila Velha, Avenida Comissário José Dantas de Melo 21, Vila Velha, 29102-920, Brazil

    Tiago Facury Moreira

  2. Universidade Federal dos Vales do Jequitinhonha e Mucuri, Av. Ver. João Narciso 1380, Unaí, 38610-000, Brazil

    Rafael Romero Nicolino

  3. Department of Veterinary Clinic and Surgery, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Av. Antônio Carlos 6627, Belo Horizonte, 31270-901, Brazil

    Leandro Silva de Andrade, Elias Jorge Facury Filho & Antônio Ultimo de Carvalho

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  1. Tiago Facury Moreira
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  2. Rafael Romero Nicolino
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  3. Leandro Silva de Andrade
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  4. Elias Jorge Facury Filho
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  5. Antônio Ultimo de Carvalho
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Correspondence to Tiago Facury Moreira.

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The study was carried out in accordance with guidelines of the Research Ethics Committee of the EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments.

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The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Moreira, T.F., Nicolino, R.R., de Andrade, L.S. et al. Prevalence of lameness and hoof lesions in all year-round grazing cattle in Brazil. Trop Anim Health Prod 50, 1829–1834 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-018-1626-3

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