Feet diseases, such as lameness, can be influenced by many causes, including laminitis; this is actually the last manifestation of several conditions with different origins, such as an inadequate management of the stable (slippery floors or space lack) and nutritional deficits such as non-suitable rations or scarce presence of trace elements useful for feet wellness – zinc and biotin.
Particularly during the end of an intense heat wave, a peak of lameness, or rather laminitis, phenomena is detected in many dairy farms, specifically due to an incorrect treatment of the herd both from the feeding and management point of view.

Lameness: cases in dairy cows after heat waves…

this kind of disease is linked to different kinds of problem:

Metabolic:

the animal starts to hyperventilate, consequently, it loses CO2 and the rumen buffer capacity decreases, thereby increasing acidosis risk.

Mechanical:

the animal stands most of the time because it will disperse less heat while lying down.

Chemicals:

water sprays are commonly used to cool down the animals; as a consequence, the environment becomes humid and not suitable to the maintenance of a healthy hoof.

A valid help in cases of lameness…

Mineral elements like zinc or iodine and vitamins like vitamin H (Biotin) influence the regular corneal tissues’ physiology, by conferring a higher mechanical resistance to the hooves in cases of lameness.

FOCUS: Oxidative Stress and Lameness

Controlling oxidative stress presents positive effects on reproductive performances of dairy cows, increasing both the conception and the pregnancy rate, with clear positive effects also on economics balance of the farm.
Also interesting are the negative effects of oxidative stress on foot health.

Indeed, a recent study published in 2014, entitled “Oxidative Stress and Imbalance of Mineral Metabolism Contribute to Lameness in Dairy Cows” indicates how strong is the relation between oxidative stress and podalic problems arise.

In the study, some parameters, such as indexes of oxidative stress on healthy and lame cows during 2013 summer, are analysed. The cows with lameness’ problems have been evaluated first with the “Locomotion Scoring”. As can be seen from “Table 1”, the lame cows presented higher levels compared to healthy cows.

Table: 1