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Evaluating the Effectiveness of Organic Therapies for the Treatment of Bovine Digital Dermatitis
Krebill, C.; Shearer, J.; Morgan...
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Objectives: Bovine digital dermatitis (DD) is an infectious bacterial disease that causes acute and chronic lameness in dairy cattle. DD has created welfare concerns within the dairy industry since its discovery in the United States during the 1980s. Common effective topical therapies for DD often include antibiotics. This makes it difficult to manage DD in organic production systems while abiding by the United States National Organic Standards Board. The primary objective of this prospective randomized clinical trial was to identify one or more effective and organic-approved products to provide improved treatment outcomes for DD.
Materials and Methods: Dairy cattle (n=385) with DD lesions were enrolled at D0 on two, similarly managed, commercial organic dairy farms. Cows were blocked by days in milk and lactation number for randomization and assigned to one of four topical treatments: a.) 15 grams of copper sulfate, b.) 20 grams of iodine, c.) 20 grams of honey, and d.) 20 grams of hydrogen peroxide. All treatments were lightly wrapped with a bandage and removed after 3 to 5 days. The assigned treatment was applied on D0, D7, and D14. The cows were evaluated in a hoof-trimming chute on D0, D7, D14, D28, D56, and D112. All data were collected by trained veterinarians and professional hoof trimmers. Metrics of locomotion score (LOCOSCORE: 1 = best, 2, 3, 4, 5 = worst), an adapted digital dermatitis scoring system (DDSCORE: 1 = best, 2 3, 4, 5 = worst), and an algometer pressure reading (ALGOSCORE:1 = worst through, 10 = best) were collected at each evaluation to determine the effect of the assigned treatments on changes in metrics since enrollment. Body condition scores and digital photographs of the lesion were collected and recorded at each evaluation. Treatment failures were switched to a 50:50 copper sulfate and iodine topical solution. Statistical analyses were performed using ordinal (proportional odds) regression for DDSCORE and LOCOSCORE versus linear regression for ALGOSCORE. Farm was treated as a fixed effect while treatment by day effects were modeled in full factorial designs. Margin means were estimated for each treatment at each day. For ordinal outcomes the probability a cow exhibited either score 1, 2, 3, or 4 was the outcome of interest, with increasing probability of lower scores the desirable outcome. For ALGOSCORE, a more rapid rise towards higher scores was desirable.
Results: The results of this study show copper sulfate was clearly the most effective treatment to rapidly and significantly improve all outcome measurements over the 112-day trial. Copper sulfate treatment showed a significant (P<0.01) increase in relative odds of becoming a lower category DDSCORE in each post treatment evaluation. With lower scores, the physical appearance of the lesion is drier and more regressed. Cows treated with copper sulfate were estimated to exhibit an ALGOSCORE of 7.1 (95% CI 6.41, 7.69) at D28 compared to 3.4 (95% CI 2.47, 4.26), 4.0 (95% CI 3.16, 4.75), and 2.7 (95% CI 1.91, 3.49) for honey, hydrogen peroxide, and iodine respectively. The ALGOSCORE, or pain-free pressure applied to the lesion, increases as the lesion regresses. The analysis for LOCOSCORE resulted in copper sulfate producing the most rapid recovery and highest probability of an ideal LOCOSCORE of a 1, no visible lameness, throughout each follow-up evaluation. All three statistical analyses showed global significance of treatment (3 degrees of freedom), peri- od (5 degrees of freedom) main effects and their interactions (p<0.05).
Conclusion: Of the four organic-approved treatments tested in this trial, copper sulfate was by-far the most effective treatment in decreasing DDSCORE and LOCOSCORE most rapidly as well as increasing ALGOSCORE indicating lesion regression and healing. While the other treatments improved over time, none showed significantly improved changes throughout the four interim evaluation points and there were no significant differences between the non-copper sulfate groups.
All cows did show improvement over time, with cows remaining in the study at D112 having improved outcome measures compared to D0; in addition, differences were non-significant (P>0.05) among all treatments at D112). However, the effects of culling and switching to the alternative treatment at D28 may have confounded those findings. Copper sulfate is the superior topical treatment to manage bovine DD.
Keywords: Digital dermatitis, locomotion, organic.
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Affiliation of the authors at the time of publication
Department of Veterinary Diagnostic and Production Animal Medicine, Iowa State University, Ames, United States;
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, Texas AM &University, College Station, United States;
Aurora Organic Dairy, Platteville, United States.
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