Lameness in Ruminants 2022: Summary

From 1–5 August 280 researchers, foot trimmers and vets attended the Lameness in Ruminants (LIR) conference in Minneapolis. The conference was based around a five day comprehensive programme covering subjects such as lameness detection, digital dermatitis treatment, trimming and much more! While the focus is on lameness in dairy cows, there were talks on dairy goats, sheep, elk and beef cattle. Here James Wilson and Nick Bell report on the conference.

The first two days were based around pre-conference workshops, in which the fundamental and advanced aspects of functional trimming were covered alongside how we can develop client communication and manage the impacts of nutrition on lameness. During the trimming sessions, Karl Burgi described his experiences of trimming corkscrew claws (using a very deep model) and how the veterinary team should be involved to help in the treatment of severe lesions. Andrea Fielder, also added to the sessions by describing a new blocking method and using ultrasonography to measure sole horn thickness. During his two sessions covering client communication, Nick Bell described how motivational interviewing and open questions can have more impact than just telling clients what to do.

Gerard Cramer and Nigel Cook presented a lameness case study on the afternoon of the second conference day, this interactive session really engaged audiences by using smartphones and polls to gauge the room’s opinion. They covered topics such as over-stocking, cubicle design, trimming budgets, footbath design and much more! It highlighted the challenge with identifying the major causes of lameness for a farm, prioritising risks and deciding on cost-effective solutions. It also showed how opinion has to underpin complex decision making when on farm (and how variable audience opinion was), but also how important scientific evidence can inform the process of prioritisation.

Throughout the conference, research posters were also available and trade stands were present, demonstrating some innovative lameness management tools. Poster content included the use of transdermal NSAIDs, using the sound of footfall to identify lame cows, and the use of farmer groups to motivate positive change.

The morning of the third conference day saw the beginning of the seminars, with topics including the automated detection of lameness and digital dermatitis (DD) being covered. Different uses of video camera’s were described, with one presentation by Santosh Pandey describing how smartphones may be used to identify lame cows in the future. Doerte Doepfer presented their recent work on automatically recognising DD and its potential implications on the management of feedlot cattle in the US, where DD is a prevalent challenge. Peter Raundal also covered a fascinating computer dashboard which is used across Denmark to monitor health traits including lameness. The afternoon saw the topic of conversation move on to the evaluation of trimming technique with Nynne Capion and Frida Åkerström describing a large variation in the trimmed foot, even when common trimming goals were identified across a range of Danish and Swedish foot trimmers. Digital dermatitis was also a hot topic of conversation with treatment methods being a key focus in this area. Arne Vanhoudt gave a fantastic insight into how we need to be treating these lesions as wounds, and being much more sympathetic to the healing process. Different gels and sprays were also presented as interesting preventative and therapeutic management tools.

Heifers were the focus of the fourth day, with Laura Randall describing how metabolomics (the analysis of urine/blood contents) can be used to predict lameness in dairy heifers (with a minimum of a 75% accuracy!). Winston Mason described their work on exercising pre-calving heifers in NZ and the effect on time to lameness with some interesting conclusions drawn about timing and duration of exercise exposure. In the afternoon a fascinating discussion around Corkscrew claws was hosted by Roger Olsen and Lee Erickson. They described the use of sand bedding in heifers as being a substantial risk factor for the development of corkscrew claws, and Mr Erickson went on to describe how a deep model should be taken when trimming these claws to remedy them. They went on to describe how we should avoid compromising sole thickness at all costs when trimming a corkscrew claw.

Dr Randall Wolcott, a human wound management specialist gave an inspirational review of how biofilms play a fundamental role in delayed wound healing in humans, and it’s relevance to digital dermatitis treatment in cattle. He demonstrated that digital dermatitis is a classic biofilm wound. He ran through the approaches to successfully disrupting biofilms: physical debridement, topical agents to disrupt biofilms such as acids or formalin, anti-inflammatories and antimicrobial therapies targeting the specific pathogens. Using some gruesome human case studies he showed the devastating impact of not tackling biofilms on chronic wound formation. He gave an important insight into a major benefit of oxytetracycline – it has potent anti-inflammatory effects by inhibiting IL-8 and IL-1β (and mucus secretion).

Zhenja Telezhenko gave a ground-breaking presentation on his work measuring pressures underneath PIII in different environments and with different trimming techniques. He was able to demonstrate the reason why we see few sole bruises and sole ulcers when cows are at pasture. He also showed how pressures dramatically increase around the margins of PIII when the walls are removed. He also showed how the big model can reduce the pressures under the flexor tuberosity of PIII.

A major part of the audience at this conference were trimmers, with very few practicing veterinary surgeons. The scientific content was quite challenging, particularly the number of reports of things that hadn’t worked, which is typical for studies presented at conferences.

The level of research presented at this year’s conference was astounding. The commitment and drive behind those delivering the work was clear to see. The conference provided not only a great educational and networking event, but also the opportunity to meet with friends old and new after a long and drawn out period when it couldn’t take place. If you are interested, the abstracts are available on the LIR2022 website.

Summary key messages from select speakers

Miel Hostens (keynote) – data can be combined powerfully for unique insights, but can be misused. 1^st parity heifers take 5 months in herd before time-budgets achieve expected, meaning we should look to ways in which we manage heifers, preferably separately. Robot systems and convention milking systems have similar patterns of eating and rumination. Most rumination is at night which is when it should be monitored for most insights.
Gerard Cramer – early intervention based on CattleEye did not reduce duration of raise CattleEye mobility scores
Elise Shepley – it is difficult to induce sole ulcers experimentally using rest restriction and poor foot angle.
Peter Raundal – Denmark successfully using Microsoft PowerBI to report foot health metrics back to farmers
Nynne Capion – trimmers were not achieving agreed goals at trimming
Frida Åkerström – lots of variation in measurements after trimming
Cassie Krebill – 20ml flush H2o2 beat iodine (useless), honey and copper sulphate in treatment of foul in organic herd (treated at 0d, 7d, 14d)
Nick Bell – Konquest statistically less effective than OTC spray at achieving cure (M0,M3). Ethical arguments about AMU might mean we have to consider non-antibiotics as many other European countries have done, and therefore looking at effect size difference shows difference may be tolerable.
Arne Vanhoudt – novel wound dressing did not work on DD.
Sair Ordaz – 2.5% Healmax (Glutaraldehyde) no less effective than copper sulphate in 4 day/week footbath trials
Laura Solano – 4x/wk with copper sulphate the most evidence-based approach and works well combined with good footbath design.
James Wilson – use of NSAIDs at calving and lame events highly effective at reducing lameness prevalence and risk of culling, but must start in parity 1 to see lifetime benefit
Steve Paul – spoke about 25 years of the NACFT, from an NACFT perspective
Jen Walker – spoke about foot health assessments being a sound basis for welfare assessment. She advocated an assessment at milking time by trained auditors, having clear protocols and training on managing welfare-challenging scenarios on farm.

Key messages from the series of preconference workshops

Zinpro workshop – feeder wagon mixing faults are worth being aware of. A video showed loading of wagon from rear and not mixing. Shaker box useful tool to identify feeder wagon mixing problems. Dry matter variations in clamps is common. Dry matter of forages can easily be measured on farm. Molasses poured in with dribble bar better for even distributions.
Communication and motivation workshop (Nick Bell and Erin Royster– also topic of Nick’s Keynote presentation) which ran through facilitation (Facilitated action plans), Social Marketing (not the same as social media marketing), Motivational interviewing and Farmer-led Action Groups for motivating change
Trimming workshops with Karl Burgi – practical trimming and corkscrews
Treatment workshop with Andrea Fiedler and Charlotte Kroeger – no information