A Population Dynamic Model for the Evaluation of Intervention Strategies During the Group Management of Digital Dermatitis in Dairy Cattle

(Papillomatous) Digital dermatitis, (P)DD, is an infectious disease in cattle that causes painful ulcerative lesions along the coronary band of the claws. Herd health managers have failed to eradicate this classical production disease of cattle. Dynamic modelling can help in developing preventive and therapeutic strategies with the aim to characterize the ‘manageable endemic state’ of disease. The evaluation of therapy and prevention is commonly accomplished by generic data analysis of incidence or prevalence data of lesions alone. The mathematical model presented in this study aims at providing a hierarchical transition model for the population transmission dynamics in groups of cattle ...