Relationship Between Barn Hygiene and Lameness Prevalence in Thirty-Five Transylvanian Dairy Farms

摘要

The aim of this work was to study the relationship between hygiene and lamenessprevalence in dairy cattle kept in tie-stall barns in Transylvania (Romania). The barns hygiene wasassessed based on the body hygiene of the housed cattle. The prevalence of lameness was determinedand the cleanliness of the two body areas of the cows in 35 dairy farms with tie-stall housing wasassessed over the period of November December 2009. A total number of 2028 dairy cows wereevaluated. The percentage of hygiene scores of 3 and 4 for the upper leg and flank with a mean valueof 41.35% and for the lower leg with a mean value of 33.12% showed statistically significantdifferences (Mann-Whitney Test, p 0.01) between the hygiene of the two body areas. The prevalenceof lameness varied between 3.57% and 58.33% with a mean value of 20.79%. We found a positivecorrelation between leg hygiene and lameness prevalence, both with respect to lower leg hygiene (rs =0.63, p 0.0001) and upper leg and flank hygiene (rs = 0.65, p 0.0001), respectively. The obtainedresults showed that the poor hygiene of barn represents a risk factor associated to lameness prevalencein tied dairy cattle