Seasonal and breed effects on the prevalence and type of claw lesions were investigated on 24854 cases of culled cows at central abattoir in the vicinity of Ardebil in Iran during twelve consecutive months. After recording information for each case, the feet were amputated and ground surface of the claws were pared for more morphopathological study. The prevalence rate of claw lesion among all cases was 24.2 per cent. The claws lesion in local cows (24.4 %) was more than imported Holstein cows (22.5 %) (P< 0.05). Most lesions occurred in the feet; the commonest were heel horn erosion (48.3 %), white line disease (25.1 %), laminitis (12.2 %), sole ulcer (10.3 %) and septic traumatic pododermatitis (4.1 %). There was a significant effect of the frequent claw lesions in each breed (P< 0.05). Heel horn erosion was the commonest lesion in Holstein cows (41.2 %) and local cows (49.1 %) and septic traumatic pododermatitis in Holstein cows (4.7 %) and laminitis in local cows (3.4 %) were the lowest lesions. White line disease was ranked second in Holstein cows (24.2 %) and local cows (25.1 %). Significant differences were not seen between the season and claw lesions (P> 0.05). However, data analysis also revealed that claw lesions occurred with greater frequency during the warm season in local and Holstein cows. The results obtained from this study demonstrate that lameness is an important problem in dairy herd in Ardebil. Poor management in hoof trimming, locomotion monitoring and poor quality of floors were the common causes of claw lesions.

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