Comparison of the rate of claw horn growth and wear and sole thickness in dairy cattle housed in a free stall barn with concrete and rubber flooring
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Abstract
Background. Thin soles and resulting lameness in cows are often due to abrasive walking surfaces that cause increased wear. The aim of this project was to compare horn growth and wear and sole thickness in cows kept on rubber mats versus concrete in a free-stall barn. Methods. To examine horn growth and wear and sole thickness, we examined two groups (Group 1 kept on concrete [control] and Group 2 on rubber mats) of 12 cows each at 2-week intervals over a 12-week period. The 12 cows in each group were selected to achieve equal parity in each group, as follows: four cows, parity 1; four cows, parity 2; two cows, parity 3; and two cows, parity 4. The four cows from the parity 1 group had the most days in milk in the herd irrespective of milk production. The remaining eight cows had the fewest days in milk (most recently calved) irrespective of milk production. Results. Cows in the control group had a significant increase in claw horn growth over the study period, compared to the control group. Most of this difference in horn growth occurred during the first 2 weeks of the study. There was no significant difference in claw horn wear and sole thickness at 2 weeks or at the end of the study. There was, however, a non-significant difference in wear between cows in the 2 groups at the end of the study, with cows in the control group showing most wear. Cows in the experimental group exhibited significant increases in all parameters (claw length, wear, and growth; sole thickness) when measured at the beginning and end of the trial, whereas cows in the control group showed a significant increase in claw length and sole thickness.Discussion. These findings suggest that there was a compensatory increase in horn production in response to accelerated claw horn wear in the control group. Statistical significance in wear might have been attained between groups at the end of the study if the study had continued over a longer period.
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2016. Comparison of the rate of claw horn growth and wear and sole thickness in dairy cattle housed in a free stall barn with concrete and rubber flooring. PeerJ Preprints 4:e2061v1 https://doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.2061v1Author comment
This is a preprint submission to Peer J preprints
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Supplemental Information
Copy of raw data 1: Foot measurements of 28 cows taken 0n three occasions over a period of 1 month
Copy of raw data 1: Foot measurements of 28 cows taken 0n three occasions over a period of 1 month
Additional Information
Competing Interests
The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
Author Contributions
Sarel Van Amstel conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Charles Young performed the experiments, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools.
Clare Scully performed the experiments.
Barton Rohrbach conceived and designed the experiments, analyzed the data, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.
Animal Ethics
The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):
Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee, University of Tennessee. Protocol # 1974-1210
Data Deposition
The following information was supplied regarding data availability:
The raw data has been supplied as a Supplemental Dataset.
Funding
Funds were provided by Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Tennessee, Account number E181710 - 007, Rubber mats were donated by Ani-mat, 395 rue Rodolpe-Racine, Sherbrooke, QC, Canada J1R oS7. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
