Recognition and management of pain in cattle

Attitudes towards pain and its control in farm animals have lagged behind those in companion animal species. However, a considerable amount of work over the past 15 years has focused on the perception of pain in cattle based on objective and subjective assessment by clinicians working with this species. A recent large-scale survey of cattle practitioners revealed that over half of the respondents felt their knowledge of pain and analgesia in cattle was inadequate or could be improved, and the majority of these identified a lack of readily available information on the subject as being a contributory factor. This article reviews current knowledge on pain assessment in cattle in a clinical setting, and discusses some protocols for pain management in specific conditions

Participatory methods for the assessment of the ownership status of free-roaming dogs in Bali, Indonesia, for disease control and animal welfare

The existence of unowned, free-roaming dogs capable of maintaining adequate body condition without direct human oversight has serious implications for disease control and animal welfare, including reducing effective vaccination coverage against rabies through limiting access for vaccination, and absolving humans from the responsibility of providing adequate care for a domesticated species. Mark-recapture methods previously used to estimate the fraction of unowned dogs in free-roaming populations have limitations, particularly when most of the dogs are owned. We used participatory methods, described as Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA), as a novel alternative to mark-recapture methods in two villages in Bali, Indonesia. PRA was implemented at the banjar (or sub-village)-level to obtain consensus on the food sources of the free-roaming dogs. Specific methods included semi-structured discussion, visualisation tools and ranking. The PRA results agreed with the preceding household surveys and direct observations, designed to evaluate the same variables, and confirmed that a population of unowned, free-roaming dogs in sufficiently good condition to be sustained independently of direct human support was unlikely to exist

Linking bone development on the caudal aspect of the distal phalanx with lameness during life

Claw horn disruption lesions (CHDL; sole hemorrhage, sole ulcer, and white line disease) cause a large proportion of lameness in dairy cattle, yet their etiopathogenesis remains poorly understood. Untreated CHDL may be associated with damage to the internal anatomy of the foot, including to the caudal aspect of the distal phalanx upon which bone developments have been reported with age and with sole ulcers at slaughter. The primary aim of this study was to assess whether bone development was associated with poor locomotion and occurrence of CHDL during a cow’s life. A retrospective cohort study imaged 282 hind claws from 72 Holstein-Friesian dairy cows culled from a research herd using X-ray micro–computed tomography (μ-CT; resolution: 0.11 mm). Four measures of bone development were taken from the caudal aspect of each distal phalanx, in caudal, ventral, and dorsal directions, and combined within each claw. Cow-level variables were constructed to quantify the average bone development on all hind feet (BD-Ave) and bone development on the most severely affected claw (BD-Max). Weekly locomotion scores (1–5 scale) were available from first calving. The variables BD-Ave and BD-Max were used as outcomes in linear regression models; the explanatory variables included locomotion score during life, age, binary variables denoting lifetime occurrence of CHDL and of infectious causes of lameness, and other cow variables. Both BD-Max and BD-Ave increased with age, CHDL occurrence, and an increasing proportion of locomotion scores at which a cow was lame (score 4 or 5). The models estimated that BD-Max would be 9.8 mm (SE 3.9) greater in cows that had been lame at >50% of scores within the 12 mo before slaughter (compared with cows that had been assigned no lame scores during the same period), or 7.0 mm (SE 2.2) greater if the cow had been treated for a CHDL during life (compared with cows that had not). Additionally, histology demonstrated that new bone development was osteoma, also termed “exostosis.” Age explained much of the variation in bone development. The association between bone development and locomotion score during life is a novel finding, and bone development appears specific to CHDL. Bone development on the most severely affected foot was the best explained outcome and would seem most likely to influence locomotion score. To stop irreparable anatomical damage within the foot, early identification of CHDL and effective treatment could be critical

Evaluation of treatments for claw horn lesions in dairy cows in a randomized controlled trial

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

Randomised controlled trial to evaluate the effect of foot trimming before and after first calving on subsequent lameness episodes and productivity in dairy heifers

The objective of this study was to assess both independent and combined effects of routine foot trimming of heifers at 3 weeks pre-calving and 100 days post calving on the first lactation lameness and lactation productivity. A total of 419 pre-calving dairy heifers were recruited from one heifer rearing operation over a 10-month period. Heifers were randomly allocated into one of four foot trimming regimens; pre-calving foot trim and post-calving lameness score (Group TL), pre-calving lameness score and post-calving foot trim (Group LT), pre-calving foot trim and post-calving foot trim (Group TT), and pre-calving lameness score and post-calving lameness score (Group LL, control group). All heifers were scored for lameness at 24 biweekly time points for 1 year following calving, and first lactation milk production data were collected. Following calving, 172/419 (41.1%) of heifers became lame during the study (period prevalence), with lameness prevalence at each time-point following calving ranging from 48/392 (12.2%) at 29–42 days post-calving to 4/379 (1.1%) between 295 and 383 days after calving. The effects of the four treatment groups were not significantly different from each other for overall lameness period prevalence, biweekly lameness point prevalence, time to first lameness event, type of foot lesion identified at dry off claw trimming, or the 4% fat corrected 305-day milk yield. However, increased odds lameness was significantly associated with a pre-calving trim alone (P = 0.044) compared to the reference group LL. The odds of heifer lameness were highest between 0 and 6 weeks post-partum, and heifer farm destination was significantly associated with lameness (OR 2.24), suggesting that even at high standard facilities, environment and management systems have more effect on heifer foot health than trimming

A prospective cohort study of digital cushion and corium thickness, Part 1: associations with body condition, lesion incidence and proximity to calving

Claw horn disruption lesions (CHDL) are a major cause of lameness in dairy cattle and are likely a result of excessive forces being applied to the germinal epithelium that produces claw horn. The digital cushion is a connective tissue structure, containing depots of adipose tissue, that sits beneath the distal phalanx and has been shown to be thicker in fatter cows. Body condition score (BCS) loss is a risk factor for CHDL, and one possible explanation is that fat is mobilised from the digital cushion during negative energy balance, causing the digital cushion to thin and lose force dissipating capacity, leading to disruption of claw horn growth. This prospective cohort study investigated the association between measures of body fat and sole soft tissues (SST) thickness (a combined measure of the corium and digital cushion beneath the distal phalanx) in a longitudinal manner. SST of 179 cows in two high yielding dairy herds were measured at five assessment points between 8 weeks prior to and 35 weeks post calving. BCS, back fat thickness (BFT) and lesion incidence were recorded. Data were analysed in a 4-level mixed effects regression model, with the outcome being SST thickness beneath the flexor tuberosity of the distal phalanx. Data from 827 assessment points were available for analysis. The overall mean of SST was 4.99 mm (SD: 0.95). SST was thickest 8 weeks prior to calving (5.22 mm, SD: 0.91) and thinnest one week post-calving (4.68 mm, SD: 0.87), suggesting that there was an effect of calving on SST. BFT was positively correlated with SST in the model with a small effect size (a 10 mm decrease in BFT corresponded with a 0.13 mm decrease in SST), yet the nadir of BFT was 11.0 mm at 9-17 weeks post calving (when SST was ~4.95 mm), rather than occurring with the nadir of SST immediately after calving. SST also varied with other variables, e.g. cows that developed a sole ulcer or severe sole haemorrhage during the study had thinner SST (-0.24 mm), except when a sole ulcer was present, when it was thicker (+0.53 mm). Cows that developed lesions had a thinner digital cushion prior to the lesion occurrence, which became thickened with sole ulcer presence, perhaps representing inflammation. Further, whilst BFT was correlated with SST over time, SST may also have been influenced by other factors such as integrity of the suspensory apparatus, which could have a major effect on CHDL. Measures of body fat likely contributed to having thin SST, but other factors including calving, herd and lesion presence also had an effec

Evaluating an intervention to reduce lameness in dairy cattle

Lameness in dairy cattle remains a significant welfare concern for the UK dairy industry. Farms were recruited into a 3-yr study evaluating novel intervention approaches designed to encourage farmers to implement husbandry changes targeted toward reducing lameness. All farms completing the study were visited at least annually and received either monitoring only (MO, n=72) or monitoring and additional support (MS, n = 117) from the research team. The additional support included traditional technical advice on farm-specific solutions, facilitation techniques to encourage farmer participation, and application of social marketing principles to promote implementation of change. Lameness prevalence was lower in the MO (27.0 ± 1.94 SEM) and MS (21.4 ± 1.28) farms at the final visit compared with the same MO (38.9 ± 2.06) and MS (33.3 ± 1.76) farms on the initial visit. After accounting for initial lameness, intervention group status, and year of visit within a multilevel model, we observed an interaction between year and provision of support, with the reduction in lameness over time being greater in the MS group compared with the MO group. Farms in the MS group made a greater number of changes to their husbandry practices over the duration of the project (8.2 ± 0.39) compared with those farms in the MO group (6.5 ± 0.54). Because the lameness prevalence was lower in the MS group than the MO group at the start of the study, the contribution of the additional support was difficult to define. Lameness can be reduced on UK dairy farms although further work is needed to identify the optimum approaches