Expert Advisory Details

Causes, symptoms, and prevention of lameness disease in animals

Lameness in cattle is a growing concern as it significantly affects the health and productivity of dairy animals. It is the third most prevalent disease in the dairy industry after Mastitis and infertility. The incidence of lameness has gradually increased over the past 20 years due to changes in management, increased production, and genetic disturbances.

Reasons:

• Overfeeding animals.
• Keeping animals more on cemented floors than on soiled.
• High humidity in the dairy farm.
• Deficiency of metals in animal feed.

Symptoms:

• Intensive pain in the animal's hooves.
• Animal deformity.
• Animal hoof wounds.

Treatment and Prevention:

• Timely treat hoof wounds in dairy animals.
• Feed animals a balanced diet daily
• Feed dairy animals more with green grass
• Feed the animals with 50 grams of mineral mixture daily.
• Trim the hooves of dairy animals every six months.Immerse/spray the animal hooves with a 4% solution of Formalin.
• Add biotin and zinc sulfate in animal feed.
• Clean the hoof wounds thoroughly with red medicine (Potassium Permanganate) and apply Copper Sulphate and Zinc Sulphate powder mixed (1:1) on the wounds for 5 days.