Relationship of diet, hoof type and locomotion score with lesions of the sole and white line in dairy cattle

Abstract

AbstractThree groups of 16 cattle each comprising three multiparous Jersey cross Holstein-Friesian cows, seven primiparous and six multiparous Holstein-Friesian cattle were offered, ad libitum, a silage-based complete diet with different concentrate ingredients following an initial 3-week covariate period. The relationship between these three diets and other parameters with lesions of the weight-bearing surface of the hoof was studied by scoring mobility weekly (locomotion score) and examining all the feet of all cows for visual lesions particularly those involving the horn of the foot. In addition hoof angle, hardness and growth and wear were also recorded. The mean locomotion score during the initial 3-week covariate period was a significant covariate for the subsequent locomotion score, milk yield, and live weight (P< 0·001). Furthermore weekly locomotion score also proved a significant covariate for weekly milk yield (P< 0·05). There were no significant differences between dietary treatment groups for locomotion score, overall lesion score (despite significantly fewer ulcers of the sole in one dietary group:P< 0·001) but a significant (P< 0·05) difference between cow ‘type’ and there was also a significant (P< 0·05) diet × breed interaction for locomotion score and milk yield. It was concluded first that initial mobility was an important factor in subsequent mobility of the cow and so experimental design; secondly that while nutrition and genotype interacted to influence mobility, visual lesions of the hoof and lameness, the mechanisms involved were far from clear; and thirdly that the simple lesion score used required some adjustment or correction factor(s) to ensure that more severe lesions were given a greater weight than a simple unitary increase.