Farmers’ practices, motivators and barriers for adoption of treatments of digital dermatitis in dairy farms

Abstract

This study aimed to catalogue the digital dermatitis (DD) treatment practices used by French dairy farmers and to identify the motivators and barriers to the adoption of these treatments. A semi-structured survey was conducted involving 65 farmers in the main dairy production areas of France in the spring of 2009. The different treatment modalities implemented by farmers since the first diagnosis of DD in their herds were described. The reasons for adopting or abandoning these treatments were then investigated based on criteria of perceived effectiveness, labour, time, cost and toxicity related to their use. For individual treatments, farmers used 30 different products, applied through three different routes, for 1 to 21 consecutive days. For collective treatments, farmers used 31 products, applied through four different routes, at a rate ranging from once a day to once a year. Several products, especially antibiotics, were used without observing the manufacturer's instructions. The principal criteria for the adoption of a treatment was the perceived effectiveness in healing DD lesions and in limiting recurrence, while the principal barriers to adopting a treatment were the time and labour required for its application, followed by cost. Topical oxytetracycline treatments applied individually were used and adopted the most. They were perceived to be effective in healing DD lesions. However, these treatments were judged labour and time consuming, particularly when many animals had to be treated. Collective treatments combining formalin and copper sulphate often were applied topically using walk-though footbaths. These treatments often were judged to be insufficiently effective in healing DD lesions, difficult to implement, labour and time consuming and costly. The plethora of DD treatment practices and the misuse of some treatments could suggest that there is a lack of guidelines available to farmers on the optimal use and expected effectiveness of treatments. Clinical trials should be conducted to develop recommendations based on scientific rather than empirical data, and to identify the DD control measures which consume the least amount of time and labour.

Invited review: Determinants of farmers' adoption of management-based strategies for infectious disease prevention and control

“…Positive perceptions of the effectiveness of proposed measures to control mastitis was not only linked to dairy farmers' adoption intent, but also strongly associated with mastitis incidence (Jansen et al, 2009). Similarly, the reason most commonly given by farmers for the adoption of a digital dermatitis protocol in cattle was its perceived effectiveness (Relun et al, 2013). However, the diversity of prevention and treatment protocols for foot health likely enhances farmers' insecurity about best practices and emphasizes the need for standardized recommendations based on credible research (Solano et al, 2017; Table 2).…”

“…Disease prevention and control measures will be implemented only if farmers perceive them to be feasible and practical (Garforth et al, 2013;Toma et al, 2015; Table 3). For example, dairy cow hoof mats soaked in trademarked chemical solutions were often abandoned because of difficulty manipulating and cleaning them, or because cows were reluctant to walk over them (Relun et al, 2013).…”

“…The requirement for extra labor can also be an impediment to making on-farm changes, and the cost and availability of skilled labor might impede farmers' implementation of recommended changes (Wassink et al, 2005;Benjamin et al, 2010;Sorge et al, 2010a;Relun et al, 2013;Alarcon et al, 2014;Horseman et al, 2014). After insufficient time, lack of labor was the second most important barrier to lameness control in dairy cattle, with almost half of farmers considering it "extremely important" or "very important" (Leach et al, 2010b).…”

Short communication: Efficacy of copper sulfate hoof baths against digital dermatitis—Where is the evidence?

“…Individual cow treatments are often seen as too time consuming by farmers (Leach et al, 2010;Relun et al, 2013a), and walk-through hoof baths have therefore been used extensively to control DD. Several different hoof-bath chemicals have been used in such hoof baths.…”

“…Several different hoof-bath chemicals have been used in such hoof baths. For decades, copper sulfate has been one of the most popular compounds used in hoof baths (Laven and Logue, 2006;Cook et al, 2012;Relun et al, 2013a), and it has been stated that copper sulfate is widely reported to be effective (e.g., Logue et al, 2012). Based on its frequent use, copper sulfate has been referred to as the industry gold standard when it comes to hoof-bath chemicals (Teixeira et al, 2010;Smith et al, 2014).…”