Lameness in Sheltered Cows and Its Association with Cow and Shelter Attributes

Abstract

The sheltering of old, unproductive and abandoned cows in traditional cow shelters, known as gaushalas, has been practiced in India since ancient times. Cows are kept in these shelters until they die of natural causes. The welfare of the cows in these shelters was assessed through a cross-sectional study of 54 cow shelters in six states of India. A total of 1620 cows were examined to assess the prevalence of lameness in these cows, and the associated risk factors for lameness were identified through the measurement of animal-based and resource-based welfare indicators. The overall lameness prevalence was 4.2%. The majority (86%) had mild to moderate hock joint swellings but no or only mild carpal joint injuries. Approximately one-half had mild to moderate hock joint hair loss and most were free of hock joint ulcerations. Claw overgrowth was present in almost one half of the cows. Lameness prevalence was positively correlated with coat dirtiness, hock and carpal joint lesions, diarrhea and claw overgrowth scores. In a multivariate analysis, lameness prevalence increased as the Body Condition Score (BCS) decreased and was associated with increased udder dirtiness, the ulceration of the hock joint, carpal joint injuries and claw overgrowth. Resource-based indicators measured at the shelter level suggested that an absence of bedding in the sheds and an increase in the gradient of the shed flooring increased lameness. Addressing the principle risk factors identified for lameness in the sheltered cows (low body condition, dirty udders, lesions on the hock and carpal joints, overgrown claws, and a steep floor gradient) may help to reduce this serious animal welfare problem.

A short life on the farm: aging and longevity in agricultural, large-bodied mammals

“…The limited information we do know about natural cow aging largely comes from India, as cows are considered sacred, and the slaughter of cows is illegal in many Indian states. The average age of sheltered cows, those cows that are no longer productive, is 11 years (Sharma and Phillips 2019); much higher than the averages seen in commercial farming. Unlike previous work in dairy cows (Haskell et al 2006), age was not found to be associated with increased risk of lameness in Indian sheltered cows (Sharma and Phillips 2019).…”

Welfare Assessment on Pasture: A Review on Animal-Based Measures for Ruminants

“…Table 1 displays seven ABMs concerning the comfort principle, reported in 25 papers deriving from studies carried out in all continents, and the evaluations were mainly carried out on dairy cows and by direct assessment. Most of authors evaluated cleanliness as yes-no binary rating, while only two [26,27] preferred to consider the animal score on a four-or five-point rating scale from clean to dirty.…”

“…In the selected papers, several types of scores were chosen to assess the BCS as a welfare indicator of grazing animals. For dairy cows, in experiments conducted in Italy and Mexico, a score of 0-2 was used, in line with the WQ assessment protocol for cattle [28,29,31,44,56], while in other countries and situations a score of 1-5 [27,33,35,57,58] or 1-10 [59] was used. Other authors [30] used a score of 1-9 for grazing beef cows.…”

Impact of Nutrients on the Hoof Health in Cattle

“…It is mainly at the forefront, due to the increasing prevalence and because no other common dairy disease is associated with such visible symptoms of pain [ 9 , 27 , 60 , 64 ], which may be of a long-term nature. Thus, in addition to adverse effects on production, lameness is associated with pain [ 6 , 11 , 22 , 25 , 26 , 31 , 32 , 36 , 40 , 46 , 55 , 60 , 65 , 66 , 67 ] and anxiety [ 60 ]. In this case, the dairy cow cannot exhibit natural behavior [ 6 , 40 , 55 , 63 , 68 ].…”

“…Thus, in addition to adverse effects on production, lameness is associated with pain [6,11,22,25,26,31,32,36,40,46,55,60,[65][66][67] and anxiety [60]. In this case, the dairy cow cannot exhibit natural behavior [6,40,55,63,68].…”