Thomsen Peter T, Houe Hans
Department of Animal and Veterinary Sciences, Aarhus University, DK-8830 Tjele, Denmark.
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, University of Copenhagen, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
JDS Commun. 2024 May 10;5(6):634-638. doi: 10.3168/jdsc.2024-0544. eCollection 2024 Nov.
Sole ulcers negatively affect cow welfare and production economy. Previous cases of sole ulcers increase the risk of new or recurrent cases, and prevention of sole ulcers during the first lactation may therefore have a long-term effect, also in later lactations. Until now, risk factors for sole ulcers in the first lactation, associated with the period before heifers calve for the first time, have not been investigated. This study evaluated early-life cow-level risk factors for sole ulcers at the first hoof trimming in the first lactation. Early-life risk factors were defined as risk factors associated with the period before a cow calves for the first time. A dataset including information about all hoof trimming recordings during the years 2020 to 2022, and information about individual cows, was retrieved from the Danish Cattle Database. The dataset included only primiparous cows, and only cows that were hoof trimmed at least once during the first lactation. Overall, 1.95% of 466,113 cows included in the study had sole ulcers at the first hoof trimming in the first lactation. Results from a logistic regression model demonstrated a statistically significant interaction between breed and age at first calving (grouped based on quartiles within breed). Overall, across breeds, odds ratios of sole ulcers at the first hoof trimming in the first lactation were generally approximately 0.5 in the first quartile of age at first calving, approximately 0.6 in the second quartile, and approximately 0.75 in the third quartile, compared with the fourth quartile within the same breed. Odds of sole ulcers were generally higher in Jersey and Danish Red Dairy cows, compared with Holstein. In conclusion, the odds of sole ulcers in the first lactation increased with increasing age at first calving, and was approximately twice as high in cows calving among the oldest 25% within a breed, compared with cows calving among the youngest 25%. Focus on early-life risk factors for sole ulcers may have a major influence on the occurrence of sole ulcers throughout the life of cows.
蹄底溃疡会对奶牛的福利和生产经济性产生负面影响。先前出现蹄底溃疡的情况会增加新病例或复发病例的风险，因此在头胎泌乳期预防蹄底溃疡可能会产生长期影响，在后续泌乳期也是如此。到目前为止，尚未对头胎泌乳期与小母牛首次产犊前时期相关的蹄底溃疡风险因素进行研究。本研究评估了头胎泌乳期首次修蹄时与奶牛早期生活相关的蹄底溃疡风险因素。早期生活风险因素被定义为与奶牛首次产犊前时期相关的风险因素。从丹麦牛数据库中检索了一个数据集，其中包括2020年至2022年期间所有修蹄记录的信息以及个体奶牛的信息。该数据集仅包括初产母牛，且仅包括在头胎泌乳期至少修蹄一次的母牛。总体而言，该研究纳入的466,113头母牛中，有1.95%在头胎泌乳期首次修蹄时患有蹄底溃疡。逻辑回归模型的结果表明，品种与首次产犊时的年龄之间存在统计学上显著的相互作用（按品种内四分位数分组）。总体而言，在所有品种中，与同一品种的第四四分位数相比，头胎泌乳期首次修蹄时患蹄底溃疡的比值比在首次产犊年龄的第一四分位数中通常约为0.5，在第二四分位数中约为0.6，在第三四分位数中约为0.75。与荷斯坦奶牛相比，泽西奶牛和丹麦红奶牛患蹄底溃疡的几率通常更高。总之，头胎泌乳期患蹄底溃疡的几率随着首次产犊年龄的增加而增加，与品种内最年轻的25%产犊的母牛相比，品种内最年长的25%产犊的母牛患蹄底溃疡的几率约为其两倍。关注蹄底溃疡的早期生活风险因素可能会对奶牛一生蹄底溃疡的发生产生重大影响。
