A questionnaire to examine the attitudes and perceptions of cattle practitioners to pain in cattle was sent to 2398 practitioners working in the uk , and 641 responses were received. From the range of procedures and conditions outlined in the questionnaire, claw amputation was scored as the most painful procedure undergone by adult cattle (assuming no analgesic drugs were administered), and neck calluses were scored as the least painful condition experienced by adult cattle. The pain associated with dystocia was considered the least painful experience for calves, and fracture of a distal limb and surgery for an umbilical hernia equally the most painful. There were significant differences between the pain scores assigned by men and women and by respondents who had graduated in different decades; female respondents and more recent graduates tended to give a higher pain score for most conditions. There were also significant differences between the pain scores assigned by respondents who routinely used analgesics and those who did not, the latter being more likely to assign significantly lower pain scores.

The efficacy of an internal dry period teat sealer containing bismuth subnitrate (Product A; Teatseal, Cross Vetpharm Group Ltd, Ireland) was compared with a long-acting antibiotic preparation containing cephalonium (Product B; Cepravin Dry Cow, Schering-Plough Ltd, UK), by assessing the number of new intramammary infections (IMI) acquired during the dry period and the number of cases of clinical mastitis during the first 100 d of lactation. Selection of study animals was based on historical data. No cases of clinical mastitis and all routine cow level somatic cell counts <200,000 cells/ml during the previous lactation were used to select cows likely to be uninfected with a major pathogen at drying off. Compared with the antibiotic tube, quarters that received the teat sealer acquired significantly fewer new IMI caused by Escherichia coli, all Enterobacteriaceae, and all major pathogens combined. There was no significant differences in the number of IMI caused by any other major pathogen. There was no significant difference in the severity or number of quarter or cow cases of clinical mastitis between product groups. Sixty quarters (3.2%) were infected with major pathogens at drying off, 27 (2.9%) in teat sealer and 33 (3.5%) in antibiotic tube cows. The dry period cure rate was not significantly different (63% product A, 70% product B). This is the first controlled study to demonstrate the efficacy of an internal bismuth teat sealer in protecting quarters against new dry period IMI caused by major mastitis pathogens, particularly environmental organisms, under UK field conditions.

This study investigated the effect of lameness, measured by serial locomotion scoring over a 12-mo period, on the milk yield of UK dairy cows. The data set consisted of 11,735 records of test-day yield and locomotion scores collected monthly from 1,400 cows kept on 7 farms. The data were analyzed in a multilevel linear regression model to account for the correlation of repeated measures of milk yield within cow. Factors affecting milk yield included farm of origin, stage of lactation, parity, season, and whether cows were ever lame or ever severely lame during the study period. Cows that had been severely lame 4, 6, and 8 mo previously gave 0.51 kg/d, 0.66 kg/d, and 1.55 kg/d less milk, respectively. A severe case of lameness in the first month of lactation reduced 305-d milk yield by 350 kg; this loss may be avoidable by prompt, effective treatment. Larger reductions can be expected when cases persist or recur. Evidence-based control plans are needed to reduce the incidence and prevalence of lameness in high yielding cows to improve welfare and productivity.

Lameness in dairy cows is a multifactorial and progressive disease with complex interactions between risk factors contributing to its occurrence. Detailed records were obtained from one United Kingdom dairy herd over an 8-yr period. Weekly locomotion scores were used to classify cows as not lame (score 1 to 2), mildly lame (score 3) and severely lame (score 4 to 5). These outcomes were used to investigate the hypothesis that low body condition score (BCS) is associated with an increased risk of lameness in dairy cows. Mixed effect multinomial logistic regression models were used to investigate the association between prior BCS and repeat lameness events during the longitudinal period of the study. Discrete time survival models were used to explore the relationship between prior BCS and first lifetime lameness events. In total, 79,565 cow weeks at risk were obtained for 724 cows. The number of lameness events was 17,114, of which 8,799 were categorized as mildly lame and 8,315 as severely lame. The median BCS was 2.25 (range, 0.75 to 4.25) and the mean body weight (BW) and age at first calving were 619.5 kg (range, 355.6 to 956.4 kg) and 25.8 mo (range, 20.5 to 37.8 mo), respectively. Subsets of the data were used in the discrete time survival models: 333 mild and 211 severe first lifetime lameness events in heifers (first lactation cows), and 81 mild and 49 severe first lifetime lameness events in cows second lactation or greater. Low BCS 3 wk before a repeated lameness event was associated with a significantly increased risk of lameness. Cows with BCS<2 were at greatest risk of mild or severe lameness, and an increased BCS above 2 was associated with a reduced risk of mild or severe lameness. Low BCS 16 or 8 wk before a first mild or severe lifetime lameness event, respectively, also had a positive association with risk of lameness in cows second lactation or greater. This provides evidence to support targeting management toward maintaining BCS to minimize the risk of lameness. Low BW (independent of BCS) and increased age at first calving above 24 mo were also associated with increased long-term risk of repeated lameness events. Overall, the model explained 62 and 60% of the variability for mild and severe lameness, respectively, highlighting the importance of these variables as risk factors and hence where management could be targeted to significantly affect reducing the risk of lameness.