The Current State of Knowledge on (papillomatous) Digital Dermatitis in Dairy Cattle: with Particular Reference to Control

Digital dermatitis was first described in Italy in 1974 (Cheli and Mortellaro, 1974) and in the UK in 1988 (Blowey and Sharp, 1988). The disease was reported in the USA in 1980 as interdigital papillomatosis (Rebhun et al., 1980). Read and Walker discussed a similar but more often proliferative disease, papillomatous digital dermatitis (footwarts), in 1994 (Read and Walker, 1994a; Read and Walker, 1994b). Histopathologic and immunohistochemical evidence indicate that papillomatous digital dermatitis (PDD) and digital dermatitis (DD) are the same disease (Read and Walker, 1998a), therefore, the abbreviation (P)DD will be used throughout the text to designate both terms. Dairy producers reported seeing (P)DD in California in the mid-1980's but most ...