EFFECTIVENESS OF A NON-ANTIBIOTIC TREATMENT FOR DIGITAL DERMATITIS USING A NOVEL SPLIT-FOOTBATH DESIGN

摘要

Lameness can exceed the cost of mastitis on a per cow basis and has grown to become one of the three costliest problems (along with mastitis and reproductive problems) on dairy operations worldwide. Digital Dermatitis continues to be one of the main causes of lameness and the primary cause due to an infectious agent. This infection of the foot and hoof has a multiplier effect that only begins with the pain and suffering the animal endures. Body weight is also decreased due to loss of appetite and difficulty in walking to food bins. This in turn, reduces reproductive performance and substantially decreases the quantity of milk produced. Contaminated milk because of antibiotics is another associated risk of treating infectious foot diseases. The stress from the chronic pain a lame animal will experience will not only negatively effect milk production but may increase susceptibility to diseases such as mastitis. The results for producers are lower production combined with increased costs due to veterinary expenses, increased labor, antibiotics, and the cost of replacing culled cows. Consequently, there is an urgent need for an efficacious way to treat and prevent Digital Dermatitis that is also cost effective. Footbaths are generally perceived to bethe easiest and most efficient method to attack and prevent infectious diseases of the foot and hoof. The high levels of organic load that are present in most footbaths, however, will quickly neutralize antibiotics. They not only pose a risk of milk contamination, they are expensive and may promote development of resistant strains of bacteria. Heavy metals, such as copper, also present their own set of problems due to increasing concern over harm to the environment. The current study examines a new non-antibiotic formula using a unique split-footbath study model.