Can Epidemiology Influence Our Understanding of Lameness in Cattle?

We want cows that are not lame. We know that lameness reduces milk yield and longevity and affects the health and welfare of cows. If it were easy to prevent lameness we would have already done so. Epidemiology is one of a multidisciplinary team of research approaches that can advance our understanding of lameness. It is potentially a powerful tool when used in combination with biology and may be of particular use to address complex situations. We need to optimise our control of lameness to have an economically and socially sustainable system of production. To do this we need to identify factors that cause lameness using optimal research approaches that include correct study design with a defined hypothesis, defined disease outcome ...