A scoring system for grading corkscrew claws in dairy cattle.

Corkscrew claw (CC) in dairy cattle is increasingly reported in dairy herds. CC is a progressive deformity of the claw capsule with uncertain aetiology and pathogenesis. Genetics and specific environmental factors are suspected of contributing to the development of this irreversible condition. CC has been found in lame cows; however, the cause and effect has not been established. To perform analysis of risk factors, treatment and pathogenesis, a definition of severity scores is called for. The aim of this study was to measure and analyse CC characteristics from photos of cows' feet to describe and evaluate a scoring system for CC. Width of the visible part of the axial wall, degree of contact between the toe and the floor and angle of the distal part of the abaxial wall as a proxy for the deviation of the abaxial wall was measured from 393 pictures of CC. Based on the measurements on the claws, the parameter "width of the axial wall" was chosen to define the scores. The parameter was divided into three intervals to define either mild CC 0.3-2.0 cm, moderate CC 2.1-3.5 cm or severe CC>3.5 cm and correlation between the parameters; level of contact between the toe and the floor and the angle of the distal abaxial wall was evaluated. There was a significant positive linear correlation between width of the axial wall and angle of the distal part of the abaxial wall (r=0.91), the wider the axial wall, the more the abaxial wall deviated in the distal part. As the width of the axial wall increased the toe increasingly lost contact with the floor, this association was significant for mild CC and moderate CC but not for severe CC. The Interobserver agreement of the CC Scoring system was tested by 30 claw trimmers each scoring 32 cadaver feet and by 2 trained observers on 28 photos of feet using Cohen´s weighted kappa and showed substantial to almost perfect agreement between untrained and trained observers, respectively.

Pathogenesis and pathology of shoulder ulcerations in sows with special reference to peripheral nerves and behavioural responses to palpation.

Shoulder ulcerations are common in breeding sows in production systems but the consequences for the animals in terms of pain or discomfort are not well-described. This study presents data from a histopathological examination of shoulders of sows, specially focusing on the peripheral nerves in the region and the behavioural responses towards palpation of animals with traumatic neuromas but without ulcers. The study included 155 sows from seven Danish herds initially screened and stratified according to absence/presence and size of shoulder ulcers 3-4 weeks post-partum, out of which 71 were free of ulcerations and 84 had different stages of ulceration. Before collection, sows were subjected to shoulder palpation and behavioural responses were registered. From the consecutive pattern of development of ulcerations it is evident that shoulder ulcerations develop from top-to-bottom. A high frequency of traumatic neuromas was found in both healed and unhealed lesions. The observation of viable nerve-ends in shoulder ulcerations makes it likely that ulcerations are associated with pain. Moreover, the presence of traumatic neuromas in healed ulcerations indicates that there is discomfort even after the lesions have healed. This is further supported by the behavioural finding that rubbing behaviour in response to palpation was increased on the day of sample collection of the shoulders in sows with traumatic neuromas but without shoulder ulcers (P=0.053). Further studies are needed for final confirmation but these results suggest that shoulder ulcers may be associated with pain even after healing.

Necropsy as a means to gain additional information about causes of dairy cow deaths.

High mortality among dairy cows constitutes a problem both financially and in relation to animal welfare. Knowledge about causes of death is a fundamental step toward reducing cow mortality. Several studies have evaluated causes of dairy cow deaths. However, the vast majority of studies describing causes of death are based on questionnaires with farmers or veterinarians. It is uncertain to what degree such information is sufficient and reflects the true cause of death or euthanasia. In this study, proximate causes of death were evaluated based on a thorough necropsy of a random sample of 79 Danish dairy cows at an incineration plant. The necropsy was combined with information about the farmer's perception regarding the cause of death and information about disease treatments from the Danish Cattle Database. Pneumonia and locomotor disorders were found to be the most predominant proximate causes of death. Often the death occurred after a prolonged period during which the cow suffered several different disorders, even though this was often not noticed by the farmer. Causes of death stated by the farmers agreed with the necropsy results in 50 to 64% of cases. Information about disease treatments from the Danish Cattle Database agreed with the necropsy results in 34 to 39% of cases. All 3 sources of information about cause of death agreed in only 1 out of 4 cases, and even when the farmer and the disease recordings did agree with the necropsy results, the latter often gave additional information about the cause of death. In many situations, therefore, a necropsy may be a valuable tool when trying to control excessive cow mortality in a herd.