As described in the introduction to this theme in UK Vet (Vol 10 No 7 Logue 2005) lameness is one of the three most important economic disease conditions affecting dairy cattle. Study of the various proportions of lameness from NADIS figures since 1997 is quite revealing. As can be seen from Figs. 1 and 2, firstly the greatest number of overall diagnoses of lameness reported was in the first year of surveillance and that, after an initial fall to a low in 2002 the numbers have risen again though still to a figure below that seen in 1997. Secondly it is evident that the proportion of lameness diagnoses due to infectious causes (Digital Dermatitis or DD and Foul-in-the-Foot or Foul) has fallen consistently since the recording started and now accounts for approximately 10% of diagnoses as opposed to 20% in 1997. The data also demonstrate that this downward trend was greatest for DD, which has reduced by approximately a third of the overall incidence in the late 90s. Sole ulceration (SU) showed the least reduction. It is speculated that farmers are now better at diagnosing and treating the major lameness conditions and so veterinarians may be increasingly seeing more complex foot lesions that are difficult to categorise easily.

Recording lameness and the lesions associated with it is not an easy task. There are various ways in which this can be done but none meet the ideal requirements of practicability, repeatability and ease. The depth of recording will vary with herd and recorder but there needs to be some framework for progression. This whole area needs practitioner, foot trimmer and farmer input and then collation, interpretation, and finally selecting the most appropriate treatment and control methods and future targets. The aim of this workshop is to help farmers maintain and use lameness records as part of their herd health plan and to enable them to be freely available to others for research and development.

Our hypothesis was that grazing time, the number of days (duration) and number of hours per day, affected claw health. From Swedish freestall herds that fulfilled our criteria of claw-trimming routines, 201 herds were randomly selected for a telephone interview regarding grazing management. Herd data were retrieved from the Swedish Official Milk Recording Scheme. Claw disorders to be analyzed were recorded at maintenance claw trimming before and after the grazing period and included mild and severe dermatitis, severe heel-horn erosion, and sole ulcer (including severe sole hemorrhage). Any remark included one or more of these recorded disorders. The odds for having a recorded claw disorder at the autumn trimming in relation to grazing management, as well as to herd- and cow-related parameters, was tested using multilevel logistic regression models. The final statistical analysis included 17,600 cows in 174 herds, which were distributed from the south to the north of Sweden with decreasing length of mandatory grazing period because of climate. Grazing duration was statistically associated with the risk of sole ulcer, but it was not linear. However, grazing duration was not statistically associated with the odds for any remark, dermatitis, or heel-horn erosion. The odds for dermatitis were lower with access to pasture for 24 h compared with either day or night access. Otherwise, the number of hours that the animals had access to grazing per day was not significantly associated with any of the other analyzed claw disorders. Higher pasture stocking density (number of cow hours per day per hectare) was associated with a higher odds for dermatitis and sole ulcer. For all recorded claw disorders, the highest odds for having a disorder after the grazing period were consistently when the cow had the same claw disorder before the release to pasture. The positive effects of grazing on claw health were less than expected, and the previous known effects of breed, days in milk, parity, production system, housing environment, and management were verified for most claw disorders. If cows in today’s loose housing systems have a more restrictive grazing than cows in tie-stall herds previously experienced, one cannot expect as strong an effect even if grazing is mandatory in all Swedish dairy cattle. Despite some positive effects of grazing, good stall environment and management during the housing period seem to be more important to obtain good claw health.

Heifers were reared separately on wet fermented (WF) (grass silage based) or dry unfermented (DU) (straw based) diets. Clinical lameness was recorded and physical claw attributes were measured regularly, up to six months after calving at approximately two years of age. Two months before calving, some aspects of animal behaviour and the properties of slurry were studied. The incidence of lameness due to claw horn lesions was significantly higher (P<0.01) in WF than in DU. WF suffered more serious heel erosion prior to calving (P<0.05) and had softer claw horn at two (heel and axial sole) out of five sites throughout (P<0.01 and P<0.05). The slurry produced by WF had lower total solids content (P<0.05) and viscosity (P<0.001). WF spent longer standing and feeding (P<0.001). It is proposed that standing for longer in less viscous slurry contributed to softer claw horn and more severe heel erosion, predisposing WF to claw horn lesions causing lameness. Reducing contact with low dry matter slurry is recommended for improving claw health.

Investigations of culling and particularly involuntary culling (“functional” longevity) have often used different criteria on herds of varying size in different regions and with divergent average milk outputs (Young, Waddington, Sales, Bradley and Spooner, 1983; Esslemont and Kossaibati, 1997; Forbes, Gayton and McGeogh, 1999; Whitaker Kelly and Smith, 2000; Figure 1). Thus the evidence of increasing or decreasing culling for any particular entity is uncertain.

In a continuous design study the claw health of 54 Holstein-Friesian heifer calves was recorded from three months of age until six months after first calving (30 months of age). Pre-calving heifers were either fed a wet, fermented grass silage-based diet (WF) or a dry, unfermented straw and concentrate based diet (DU), apart from grazing during their first summer. Approximately one month before calving both groups were fed a silage-based diet and afterwards all received a silage and concentrate lactation ration. Claws were examined four times during rearing, once pre-calving, and four times during lactation. Both white line and sole lesions were significantly worse for WF than DU both during rearing and throughout first lactation although the effect was not as consistent over time for white line lesions. It is concluded that for optimal claw health youngstock diets should not be heavily based on wet grass silage (less than 25% DM).

This paper presents the first systematic review of the literature on lameness in cattle. It identifies, tabulates and classifies relevant published work and was conducted using electronic reference databases (BIDS ISI, BIOSIS, MEDLINE and the CAB Abstracts CD-ROM). A total of 1373 unique references were obtained from 1981 to 2000, of which 914 were written in the English language. A written search protocol was designed to ensure transparency and repeatability. Pilot studies were undertaken to create search terms that minimised bias and ensured relevance. Electronic files of the search terms allow the database to be updated in future. A further 93 references were included from the most recent international conference on lameness giving a total of 1007 English language references. The systematic review process is described, including a method of classifying papers according to their study design and statistical analysis, and it is hoped that other veterinary researchers will conduct similar reviews in their fields. The compiled and classified references are available as a searchable database through the web-sitehttp://cattle-lameness.dhs.org/ . The review may be used in several ways; to identify practical interventions to reduce lameness in dairy cows and to use the resultant web-site as the basis of a decision support system for farmers, veterinarians and advisors.

This paper presents an information extraction method, called systematic review, which can be used to identify risk factors that can be modified to provide practical intervention strategies. A systematic review of lameness in cattle (http://cattle-lameness.dhs.org/) was carried out and yielded 1,007 references, written in English. Almost half of these references (n = 445) involved epidemiological investigations of at least one risk factor for lameness. References that investigated 'biological' risk factors (n = 259), were used for illustrative purposes. Relevant information was found in 85 of these references. The majority of these had appropriate statistical analyses. To highlight pertinent points, evidence for the relationship between the time of year that calving occurred and lameness was obtained from 22 references that covered 47 investigations. There were 23 different definitions of calving season and IS different lameness and lesion outcomes considered. This demonstrated that meta-analysis was not feasible. Overall, there was little evidence that calving season had a consistent effect on lameness and lesion outcomes, and the effects that were seen, were small.

Cell proliferation and protein synthesis (keratinisation) were measured in vitro in hoof biopsy samples taken from two groups of seven heifers, the first calving in the winter and the second in the summer. Both parameters were significantly higher in summer than in winter irrespective of the heifers' reproductive state. The mean (se) measure of the rate of protein synthesis was 199 (27) dpm/μg DNA/hour in summer and 4 (1) dpm/μg DNA/hour in winter, and the equivalent values for cell proliferation (measured as DNA synthesis) were 375 (56) μm/pg DNA/hour and 17 (4) dpm/μg DNA/hour. Changes around parturition depended on the time of the year. In the winter‐calving heifers, the rates of proliferation and keratinisation increased significantly after calving from 22.3 (7.2) to 70 4 (16.6) and from 2.1 (0.7) to 12.4 (2.8) dpm/μg DNA/hour, respectively. In the summer‐calving heifers, proliferation decreased from 388.2 (91.0) to 66.7 (9.6) dpm/μg DNA/hour but the rate of keratinisation did not change. Lesion scores and locomotion scores deteriorated after parturition, especially in the winter‐calving group. The hooves were harder in summer than winter but their hardness was not affected by the heifers' reproductive state.

Two groups of eight Holstein-Friesian heifers were fed either a grass-silage-based diet (S) or one based on meadow hay supplemented with 1.8 kg/day barley concentrate mix (H) during cubicle housing as young stock (and in early pregnancy). Lameness and claw lesion development were monitored from approximately four weeks before until 20 weeks after first calving. No significant difference was found between S and H for claw conformation or horn growth and wear. Both groups showed net wear immediately after calving. The prevalence of poor locomotion and the extent of lesion development 20 weeks after calving (when they were highest) were significantly (P< 0.05) higher in S than H. It was concluded that feeding grass silage to young stock may deleteriously affect subsequent claw health and that this risk factor requires further study.

Measurements were made of the extent of sole and white line lesions on the claws of 115 Holstein-Friesian cows on at least three and at most 16 occasions, and some cows were followed up to their third lactation. All the measurements were made between 12 weeks before calving and 45 weeks after calving. In total, 1016 repeated observations were made. Correlations were calculated between pairs of claws, between types of lesion (sole and white line), and between pairs of the different measurements (number of lesions, proportion of the claw affected, maximum severity score and proportion of the claw affected weighted for severity). The outer hind claws had the greatest extent of lesions of both types. Spearman correlation coefficients and confidence intervals measured the strength of the association. All the associations between claws were positive, suggesting that the lesions did not occur in isolation. Sole and white line lesions were not associated at individual observation points. Lesions on the left and right claws were markedly similar, except for sole lesions on the two inner hind claws, and for white line lesions on the two outer hind claws.

Lameness and lesions in the claws of 31 autumn-calving Holstein Friesian dairy cows were recorded from before their first-calving until their fifth lactation. The animals were managed by the same herdsman and housed adjacently in the same building in one of two herds grazed either on clover-rich pastures (herd 1) or on conventional ryegrass (herd 2). All four hooves were examined routinely four times during each lactation, and claw lesions were scored for severity and drawn on hoof maps. Heel erosion and infectious skin conditions of the hoof were also recorded, and hoof conformation, hardness, and growth and wear were measured. The animals' locomotion was scored weekly throughout the winter housing period and any observed to be lame were examined to determine the cause. The development of lesions was modelled by using hierarchic smoothing splines. There was no significant effect of herd except on the prevalence of lameness in lactation 2 when the incidence of (inter)digital dermatitis was higher in herd 2. Lesion and locomotion scores were significantly higher by lactation 4 (P<0.05). There were significant effects (P<0.05) of weeks postcalving on lesion formation, claw conformation, and heel erosion.

Lameness, hoof lesion development and behaviour were compared for two groups of 10 heifers: one in early pregnancy (PH), the other in early lactation (LH). Both groups were housed in the summer in cubicles under identical conditions. Behavioural observations commenced immediately after housing, and then at 2, 4 and 6 weeks post-housing. Locomotion scores were assessed weekly, and feet were examined for lesions at approximately –1, 0, 1 and 2 months after housing. All four feet were photographed, lesions were scored subjectively for severity, and lesion size and position were estimated using image analysis techniques. LH already had greater total lesion scores before housing. More severe linear lesions in the LH group were associated with reduced lying, and less idling, increased standing in cubicles and more disturbed lying behaviour.