The cleftabet – Evaluation of interdigital cleft conformation

Objectives

Dynamics of bovine digital dermatitis (BDD) and variation in susceptibility (Döpfer et al., 2012; Capion et al., 2012) has been associated with multiple factors. Genetic variation (Scholey et al., 2013) and hind leg conformation has been described as possible factors related to the individual cow. Also, this observation model may explain some of the variation that we see in dairy herds as well as deviation of BDD infection rates between front and hind legs. A study of the width of the digital cleft showed that narrow interdigital clefts have a higher risk of BDD and some interdigital clefts may be wider upon weight bearing compared to lifted legs (Daniel, 2011).

The objective of this study was to evaluate agreement between observers scoring interdigital cleft conformation. [...]