Association between bovine digital dermatitis treponemes and a range of ‘non‐healing’ bovine hoof disorders

Evans, Nicholas J.; Blowey, Roger; Timofte, Dorina; Isherwood, D. M.; Brown, Jennifer M.; Murray, Richard D.; Paton, R. J.; Carter, Stuart

doi:10.1136/vr.c5487

Cited by 66 publications

(84 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Whatever the presentation, the clear association of DD treponemes strongly suggests that we have identified another manifestation of the disease. Interestingly, DD treponemes have recently been associated with newly identified severe, nonhealing lesions in cattle feet, such as nonhealing white line disease and sole ulcers (38). This suggests that the DD treponemes are potent opportunistic secondary in- .…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isolation of Digital Dermatitis Treponemes from Hoof Lesions in Wild North American Elk (Cervus elaphus) in Washington State, USA

et al. 2015

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c Since 2008, a large increase in the numbers of cases of lameness have been seen in wild North American elk (Cervus elaphus) from Washington State, USA. The most recent cases manifested as foot lesions similar both clinically and pathologically to those seen in digital dermatitis (DD) in cattle and sheep, a disease with a bacterial etiopathogenesis. To determine whether the same bacteria considered responsible for DD are associated with elk lameness, lesion samples were subjected to bacterial isolation studies and PCR assays for three phylogroups of relevant DD treponemes. The DD treponemes were isolated from lesional tissues but not from control feet or other areas of the diseased foot (including the coronary band or interdigital space), suggesting that the bacteria are strongly associated with DD lesions and may therefore be causal. In addition, PCR analysis revealed that all three unique DD treponeme phylotypes were found in elk hoof disease, and in 23% of samples, all 3 DD-associated treponemes were present in lesions. Sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene showed that the elk lesion treponemes were phylogenetically almost identical to those isolated from cattle and sheep DD lesions. The isolates were particularly similar to two of the three culturable DD treponeme phylotypes: specifically, the Treponema medium/Treponema vincentii-like and Treponema phagedenislike DD spirochetes. The third treponeme culturable phylogroup (Treponema pedis), although detected by PCR, was not isolated. This is the first report describing isolation of DD treponemes from a wildlife host, suggesting that the disease may be evolving to include a wider spectrum of cloven-hoofed animals.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Isolation of Digital Dermatitis Treponemes from Hoof Lesions in Wild North American Elk (Cervus elaphus) in Washington State, USA

et al. 2015

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“…However, they may also be secondary infections to other, possibly noninfective, lesions of sheep feet. It has become apparent that the BDD treponemes must be considered promiscuous and opportunistic infective agents, as it has been clearly demonstrated that they can invade other (noninfective) lesions in cattle feet, such as white line disease and sole ulcers and clinically manifest as new serious infectious diseases which are very difficult to treat (56). Previously, only a 70% association of treponemes with CODD lesions was found (37), much lower than the 100% reported in this study (albeit by different methodologies) which is in accordance with the 100% association shown in dairy cattle DD lesions (32).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-Level Association of Bovine Digital Dermatitis Treponema spp. with Contagious Ovine Digital Dermatitis Lesions and Presence of Fusobacterium necrophorum and Dichelobacter nodosus

Sullivan¹,

Clegg²,

Angell

et al. 2015

J Clin Microbiol

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Digital dermatitis (DD) is an infectious lameness commonly found in dairy cattle worldwide, and it is known as bovine digital dermatitis (BDD) or papillomatous digital dermatitis (PDD). The disease was first reported in 1980 in the United States (1) and in the late 1980s in the United Kingdom (2). BDD has also been confirmed in beef cattle (3, 4), and over the last 30 years, the disease has been recognized as an important cause of bovine lameness (5).Lameness in cattle and sheep has serious animal welfare and economic implications (6-9). The effects of lameness in cattle include a decrease in milk yield (9, 10) and fertility (8, 11-13) and an increase in rate of culling (12,14). This has been found to be particularly true for cattle suffering from BDD (8, 15, 16) with a recent study of the cost of lameness in the United States estimating that on average, BDD costs $133 per case (17).BDD is now a worldwide problem, and controlling BDD on dairy operations has proven difficult. Moreover, in the last 20 years, sheep in the United Kingdom have been identified with a form of DD termed contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD), which is rapidly emerging as a severe infectious foot disease since it was first reported in the United Kingdom in 1997 (18-20). Now, CODD has spread into the Republic of Ireland (20), and it was recently reported in dairy goats in the United Kingdom (21), indicating further cross-species transmission. The contagious nature of DD is also evident by the reports of a manifestation of the disease in a wildlife host, North American elk (Cervus elaphus) from Washington State (22). The reports of DD in previously unaffected species, including U.S. wildlife, suggests a much greater global threat of the disease than previously considered.BDD in cattle manifests in several forms, but most frequently as an ulcerative lesion of the digital skin located immediately above the coronary band between the heel bulbs which results in severe lameness (23). The clinical features of CODD in sheep are slightly different, mainly because the initial lesion site on the sheep foot is different. CODD lesions commence at the coronary band and then run under the hoof horn capsule dorsally and abaxially (24). CODD frequently presents a particularly severe outcome where the whole horn capsule can be lost (18,(25)(26)(27). As a result of the severity of the lesions, sheep can be extremely lame, impacting the welfare of the affected sheep (28). This is concurrent with the lesion pathology identified in elk, described as erosive lesions on

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“…Treponemal bacteria are known to be closely associated with digital dermatitis (DD) lesions on the feet of cloven-hoofed animals including dairy and beef cattle worldwide (Dawson, 1998;Evans et al, 2011;Sullivan et al, 2014a), sheep from the UK (Dhawi et al, 2005;Duncan et al, 2014) and Ireland (Sayers et al, 2009), UK goats (Sullivan et al, 2014a) and also wild elk from the USA (Clegg et al, 2014). Additionally, DD treponemes have been isolated from pigs with skin lesions on their shoulders, tail and ears (Karlsson et al, , 2014Svartstr€ om et al, 2013;Clegg et al, 2016c), and detected in cases of horse canker in Austria (Sykora and Brandt, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 97%

“…Previous studies have shown that DD treponemes are also associated with other lesions on the skin of cattle, including several non-healing foot lesions (Evans et al, 2011), hock lesions (Clegg et al, in press) and udder lesions including mammary dermatitis and ischaemic teat necrosis (Evans et al, 2010;Clegg et al, 2016b), which are generally slow to heal. Taken together, these studies suggest a potential for treponemes to infect skin wounds on areas other than the foot.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Detection and Isolation of Digital Dermatitis Treponemes from Bovine Pressure Sores

Clegg

Crosby-Durrani²,

Bell

et al. 2016

Journal of Comparative Pathology

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Pressure sores cause severe pain and discomfort in hospitalized people and in farmed cattle and are often infected with unknown bacteria. Pressure sores occur on the upper legs of 6-10% of recumbent cattle and are generally considered to be caused by constant pressure, commonly on bony areas of the limbs. This study analyzed pressure sores taken from the upper limbs of 14 cattle using isolation in culture and nested polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect treponemes associated with digital dermatitis (DD). A 100% association of DD treponemes with the pressure sores was demonstrated, but treponemes were shown not to be part of the normal skin microbiota. Immunohistochemistry showed an association of DD treponemes with lesions and particularly with the hair follicles in lesions, identifying the bacteria deep within wounds, thereby suggesting that they could contribute to lesion pathogenesis. The bacteria isolated from the pressure sore lesions were similar or identical on analysis of the 16S rRNA gene to those found in DD foot lesions in cattle, suggesting the same bacteria can infect multiple lesions. Indeed, the results of this study suggest that these spirochaetal bacteria may be expanding in host range and in their ability to colonize different tissues and contribute to a range of disease manifestations in farm animals.

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Association between bovine digital dermatitis treponemes and a range of ‘non‐healing’ bovine hoof disorders

Cited by 66 publications

References 19 publications

Isolation of Digital Dermatitis Treponemes from Hoof Lesions in Wild North American Elk (Cervus elaphus) in Washington State, USA

Isolation of Digital Dermatitis Treponemes from Hoof Lesions in Wild North American Elk (Cervus elaphus) in Washington State, USA

High-Level Association of Bovine Digital Dermatitis Treponema spp. with Contagious Ovine Digital Dermatitis Lesions and Presence of Fusobacterium necrophorum and Dichelobacter nodosus

Detection and Isolation of Digital Dermatitis Treponemes from Bovine Pressure Sores

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