Clinical and gross pathologic findings of complicated vertical fissures with digital dermatitis in a dairy herd

Careful antemortem examination and interpretation of findings, assisted by goodclinical records, do much to throw light on the nature of vertical fissure in cattle. During aneight month period of investigation, 13 (3.2%) lame cows with vertical fissure out of 52Holstein cows with different claw fissures were selected for clinical and gross pathologicalpurposes in a commercial dairy farm with 400 milking cows in Nazarabad, Iran. The cowswere 2.5 to10.5 years old. The prevalence rate of vertical fissure was 3.2 per cent. Theprevalence rate of claw lesion in the hind limb (69.2%) was higher than that of fore limb(30.7%). The type of vertical fissures were 4 (38.4%), 5 (23.0%), 2 (23.0%) and 3 (15.3%),respectively. Locomotion scoring assessment of 13 culled lame cows showed score rangedfrom grade 3 (30.7%) to 4 (61.5%). The herd had endemic digital dermatitis infection withprevalence in the adult herd of over 34.2%. The affected claws were more boxy thannormal and the abaxial wall was convex in all directions. The lame cows had typical stancesuch as hobbyhorse or cross legged stance. This study shows that more research is neededboth on the economic impact of vertical fissures in dairy cows and on the microbiologicalstudy of spirochaetes of the genus Treponema. This study recommends that owners of dairyfarm should try to control digital dermatitis with preventative herd strategies.