Risk Factors of Lameness in Dairy Cattle and its Interaction with the Grazing Ecosystem of Milk Production

Lameness in dairy cattle is a growing problem in milk production under grazing conditions. The risk factors that predispose to these pathologies have increased significantly due to technological changes during the last decades in the milk sector. Outbreaks of lameness, difficulty to walk and lack of comfort is a growing preoccupation of the farmers and is a challenge for technicians to resolve. Lameness is probable the most important animal welfare issue today in dairy herds; public perception of the dairy production is becoming increasingly important, and lame cows do not portray a good image of the industry (Oetzel 2003). Lameness has been identified by dairy farmers in Australia as one of the most important health problems of dairy cattle. A cost of 200 U$ per lame cow is estimated taking into account productive losses, reproductive inefficiencies, treatment costs and culling (Malmo and Vermut 1998). The average lactation length of lame cows was shorter due mostly to premature culling of some cows because of their poorer production and reproductive performance. These differences in production were valued at $NZ 94.40 per lame cow (Tranter 1992). We did not find reports regarding the economic impact of lameness in milk ...