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
- Published
- Accepted
- Subject Areas
- Veterinary Medicine
- Keywords
- Dairy cows, Dairy cows Housing
- Copyright
- © 2016 Van Amstel et al.
- Licence
- This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ Preprints) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
- Cite this article
- 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.2061v1
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.
Author Comment
This is a preprint submission to Peer J preprints
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