“…Orthopedic disorders causing lameness belong to the most common and economically most relevant production diseases of dairy cattle worldwide (Bennett et al, 1999). The prevalence of lameness of dairy cattle in European countries and the United States ranges between 5 and 48% (Manske et al, 2002;Espejo et al, 2006;Amory et al, 2008;Bicalho et al, 2009;Dippel et al, 2009a,b, Barker et al, 2010Becker et al, 2014b). Reduced milk yield and fertility, increased risk of culling, treatment costs, and additional expenditure for extra labor cause considerable economic loss (Kossaibati and Esslemont, 1997;Warnick et al, 2001;Green et al, 2002;Garbarino et al, 2004;Amory et al, 2008;Bruijnis et al, 2010).…”