TY - JOUR

T1 - Prevalence of Lameness in Dairy Cows

AU - Thomsen, Peter T

AU - Shearer, Jan K

AU - Houe, Hans

N1 - Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

PY - 2023

Y1 - 2023

N2 - Lameness in dairy cows has major negative impacts on animal welfare and production economy. While previous studies have evaluated the prevalence of lameness in single countries, the present literature review is the first overview of the prevalence of lameness in dairy cows globally. This literature review identified 53 studies reporting prevalence of lameness among representative samples of dairy cows and fulfilling a number of specified inclusion criteria (e.g., at least 10 herds and 200 cows, and locomotion scoring by trained observers). A total of 414,950 cows from 3,945 herds were included in these 53 studies, which spanned a 30-year period (1989 to 2020) and included herds from six continents, with the majority from Europe and North America. Across the studies, the mean prevalence of lameness (typically defined as score 3-5 on a 1-5 scale) was 22.8% with a median of 22.0% and a range between studies from 5.1 to 45%, and a within herd range from 0 to 88%. The mean prevalence of severely lame cows (typically defined as score 4-5 on a 1-5 scale) was 7.4% with a median of 6.5% and a range between studies from 1.8 to 21.2%, and a within herd range from 0 to 65%. Over time, it appears that the prevalence of lameness has changed very little. Several different locomotion scoring systems and definitions of (severe) lameness were used across the 53 studies, and this may have affected the reported lameness prevalence. Sampling of herds and cows, inclusion criteria and representativeness also differed between studies. This review offers recommendations for the future capture of information on lameness in dairy cows and identifies potential knowledge gaps.

AB - Lameness in dairy cows has major negative impacts on animal welfare and production economy. While previous studies have evaluated the prevalence of lameness in single countries, the present literature review is the first overview of the prevalence of lameness in dairy cows globally. This literature review identified 53 studies reporting prevalence of lameness among representative samples of dairy cows and fulfilling a number of specified inclusion criteria (e.g., at least 10 herds and 200 cows, and locomotion scoring by trained observers). A total of 414,950 cows from 3,945 herds were included in these 53 studies, which spanned a 30-year period (1989 to 2020) and included herds from six continents, with the majority from Europe and North America. Across the studies, the mean prevalence of lameness (typically defined as score 3-5 on a 1-5 scale) was 22.8% with a median of 22.0% and a range between studies from 5.1 to 45%, and a within herd range from 0 to 88%. The mean prevalence of severely lame cows (typically defined as score 4-5 on a 1-5 scale) was 7.4% with a median of 6.5% and a range between studies from 1.8 to 21.2%, and a within herd range from 0 to 65%. Over time, it appears that the prevalence of lameness has changed very little. Several different locomotion scoring systems and definitions of (severe) lameness were used across the 53 studies, and this may have affected the reported lameness prevalence. Sampling of herds and cows, inclusion criteria and representativeness also differed between studies. This review offers recommendations for the future capture of information on lameness in dairy cows and identifies potential knowledge gaps.

U2 - 10.1016/j.tvjl.2023.105975

DO - 10.1016/j.tvjl.2023.105975

M3 - Review

C2 - 36990338

VL - 295

JO - The Veterinary Journal

JF - The Veterinary Journal

SN - 1090-0233

M1 - 105975

ER -