Lameness – one disease affecting all 5 freedoms of dairy cow

Lameness is one of the most pressing welfare problems for dairy cows. 

• The veterinary profession has responsibility to advocate for animals’ best interests at the individual level (e.g. veterinary professionals having direct contact with animal keepers and owners), community level (e.g. veterinary practices offering animal welfare expertise through local media, to local politicians, and other outreach activities), national level (e.g. veterinary associations formulating and advocating animal welfare policies) and international level (through policy formulation and advocacy, and effective partnerships between national and international veterinary associations, and other international bodies and institutions). 

• Overall, the veterinary profession has a dual responsibility - to advocate for the best interests of animals under the care of individual veterinarians (at individual level), as well as to advocate for changes and solutions to address the root causes of animal welfare problems (especially at community, national and international levels). 

• FVE recognises that cattle lameness is multifactorial in origin and calls for lameness in dairy cows to be addressed at each of these levels, e.g.: 

▪ Individual (veterinary practitioners): - To identify, diagnose and treat lame cows, and communicate the cow welfare 

impacts to farmers - To recognise pain in lame cows, and routinely use analgesia during and after 

the treatment of painful lameness-causing lesions - To implement lameness prevention programmes - To implement on-farm mobility scoring; collate results for on-farm trend- monitoring and between-farm benchmarking; and provide training and support in mobility scoring to stock people 

▪ Community (veterinary practices): - To have co-ordinated lameness prevention and monitoring programmes, ensuring routine, consistent on-farm lameness assessment and data- gathering - To organise or attend regional farmer discussion groups to focus on lameness, with facilitated discussions to share good management practices and between-farm benchmarking data […]