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Digital Documentation of Digital Lesions in Cows with the Claw Manager – A Digital Protocol and Analysis Program for Claw Health of Dairy Herds
Kofler J., Pesenhofer R. and Landl...
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Objectives: In most dairy herds, there is a lack of documentation of lameness and claw disorders, and digital software programs are rarely used by claw trimmers or farmers (1). the aim of this report is to present a newly established digital protocol and soft ware program – the claw Manager - for documentation of claw disorders during routine claw trimming and for immediate analysis of these data.
Materials and Methods: documentation in practice can be carried out using either a shockproof and washable touch-screen connected to a laptop, a tablet Pc or using a laptop only. animal data on the farm can be registered manually or by import of data from public farm registers. the animal data file comprises 12 claw disorders graded into three severity scores and five lameness scores. as a default, lameness scores for severe claw disorders and reminders for presentation of affected cows are also included for the farmer and the vet. For each of the 8 main claws, 10 zones are presented graphically by the software and the pre-selected diagnoses can be inserted by touching the corresponding zone on the touch-screen. until now this program was used by the author r.P. for claw data documentation and analysis in more than 350 herds over a period of two years.
Results: the software was programmed to analyse the documented claw-horn and claw skin findings and lameness scores. the severity of lesions was arithmetically and geometrically scored using already published claw scoring systems (2, 3, 4). the geometric severity scores for all zones of all eight claws were added resulting in the cow claw score ( CCS ) for each animal. the median of all CCS of a herd describes the Fcs (Farm claw score) (5). an analysis of the various claw zones is expressed by the FZs (Farm Zone score) that lists the most frequently and most severely affected claw zones in a descending order (6).
Conclusions: the claw Manager proved to be a practical digital documentation program for the professional claw trimmer. A modern tool for claw health control may be offered, based on the integration of methods which until now only has been used for scientific evaluation of claw health, such as CCS (2, 3, 4) and Fcs (5). the digitally recorded claw data can be analysed in an individual cow but also within a herd. additionally, a long-term course of claw health of individual herds may be monitored easily, furthermore comparing claw data of different farms is now very easy and quick using the parameter Fcs (6). references 1. landmann d, eise M, Fiedler A et al. (2004): Proc 13th International symposium on lameness in ruminants, Maribor slovenia, 99–100. 2. greenough Pr, Vermunt JJ (1991): Vet rec 128: 11 17. 3. leach ka, logue dn, randall JM, kempson SA (1998): Vet J 155: 91 102. 4. smilie rH, Hoblet kH, eastridge Ml et al. (1999): Vet rec 144, 17–21. 5. Huber J, stanek c, troxler J (2004): Proc 13th International symposium on lameness in ruminants, Maribor slovenia, 116–117. 6. kofler J, Hangl a, Pesenhofer r, landl G (2011): Berliner Münchener tierärztliche Wochenschrift 124, 272-281.
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Affiliation of the authors at the time of publication
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Department of Farm Animals and Veterinary Public Health, Clinic for Ruminants, Austria
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