Risk factors associated with hair loss, ulceration, and swelling at the hock in freestall-housed UK dairy herds

Abstract

The objective of this study was to identify the risk factors associated with 3 presentations of hock lesions (hair loss, ulceration, and swelling) in freestall-housed lactating cattle. By independent identification and scoring of, and analysis of the factors associated with, hair loss, ulceration, and swelling, the aim was to identify whether risk factors were common to all 3, or differed among the presentations. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 76 herds in the UK during the winter housing period of 2007 to 2008, with a total of 3,691 cows examined for hock lesions. A randomly selected sample of approximately 50 cows in each herd were scored for body condition, lameness, cleanliness, rising behavior, and lesions at the hocks. For all cows, hair loss, ulceration, and swelling were scored separately on 4-point scales, with both left and right hocks scored. Based on a review of the literature, potential risk factors were identified and measured, collected from milk-recording data, or obtained through interviews with the farmers. Risk factors associated with hocks lesions in cattle were examined using data from the 2,982 cows housed in the 63 freestall-housed herds visited. Risk factors for each of the 3 lesion presentations were considered separately in multilevel logistic regression models, with moderate or severe hair loss, any degree of ulceration, and moderate or severe swelling as the outcome variables. Thirty risk factors were identified, none of which were common to all 3 lesion presentations. Five risk factors (locomotion score, number of days of winter housing, mean milk yield, freestall base material, and herd size) were common to both hair loss and ulceration. The stall bedding material was a common risk factor for both hair loss and swelling. A further 8, 5, and 11 risk factors were unique to hair loss, ulceration, and swelling, respectively. The existence of several differential risk factors between the 2 lesion presentations suggests that ulceration may not always be a direct extension of hair loss, as has been implied in previous scoring systems. Of the 12 risk factors associated with swelling, only 1 was common to another lesion presentation, which suggests that swelling may have a different etiology than hair loss and ulceration. The variables associated with the lesions indicate the importance of factors that affect the lying and rising behavior of the animal, including freestall structure and design, and the lying surface.

Investigating integument alterations in cubicle housed dairy cows: which types and locations can be combined?

“…Furthermore, it speaks in favour of the hypothesis, that underlying causes for H and W are the same, but need to be stronger or applied over a longer time period to cause the more severe alteration. On the other hand, S were oftentimes separated from H and W at the same location with more detailed clustering, which is in line with Potterton et al (2011a) who found several risk factors in common for H and W at the hocks, but only one common risk for H and S at the same location.…”

“…In Denmark as well as Canada, the combined prevalence for H, W and S at the hock was 47% (Burow et al, 2013;Zaffino Heyerhoff et al, 2014). When looking at the different alterations at the tarsal joint, separately, much higher prevalences have been found in the United Kingdom for S (100%) as well as H (92%), but W (18%) was in a comparable range (Potterton et al, 2011a). In a Norwegian study on the other hand, H (53%) and W (6%) were in a comparable range, but prevalence of S was considerably lower (1%) (Kielland et al, 2009).…”

“…So far, most studies focused on integument alterations in the hock region (e.g. Rodenburg et al, 1994;Lombard et al, 2010;Potterton et al, 2011a and2011b) and some additionally on the carpal joint (e.g. Spycher et al, 2002;Fulwider et al, 2007;Norring et al, 2008).…”

“…For alterations in the hock area, it has been found that different factors may influence prevalence values for different specific locations at the hock (Weary and Taszkun, 2000) or different types of alterations (Rutherford et al, 2008;Potterton et al, 2011a). We thus aimed to analyse possible correlations between prevalence values at different locations and of different types of alterations in order to provide a basis for future research on potential similar causes of related alterations.…”

Daily grazing time as a risk factor for alterations at the hock joint integument in dairy cows

“…For British free-stall and straw-pen herds, with more than 50 cows, it has been described that hock damage (including hair loss and lesions) and swellings decrease with increasing number of months with summer grazing (Rutherford et al, 2008). Further, in the United Kingdom, free-stall herds with an average of 162 cows, hair loss and to some extent ulcerations at the hock joint increased with increasing number of days of indoor winter housing (Potterton et al, 2011). No study has as yet tested the impact of daily grazing hours for such herds.…”