Effects of trimming on the thermographic pattern of claw sole in dairy cows

Abstract

Lameness is one of the most significant health, economic and welfare issues in dairy farms. In the present study potential usefulness of infrared thermography (IRT) as a non-invasive instrument for rapidly screening the claw sole temperature alterations between baseline (before trimming) and after trimming was investigated. For this purpose, this study was aimed to reveal the effect of claw trimming on claw sole temperature by using infrared thermography (IRT). One hundred thirty IRT observations from the hind legs of non-lame, healthy cows were collected and examined from 65 cows. The maximum (Tmax), average (Tave), and minimum (Tmin) temperatures of the claw sole and the temperature difference (ΔT) between the lateral and medial claws were examined on the baseline and after trimming. Claw temperature values were evaluated for normality using the Shapiro Wilk test. Paired t-test was used for comparing results with normal distribution while Wilcoxon’s signed-rank test was also used for nonparametric comparisons. Average baseline and after trimming solar surface temperature values on lateral claws were determined as 19.91±2.67°C and 21.49±3.43°C, respectively. The solar surface temperature values on medial claws were baseline 19.96±2.52°C and after trimming 20.98±2.83°C. There were statistically significant differences between baseline with after trimming solar surface temperatures of lateral (Tmax: P=0.005; Tave: P<0.001; and Tmin: P=0.005), and medial claws (Tave: P<0.001). After trimming, claw sole temperature values between the lateral and medial were statistically significant (Tmax: P=0.020; Tave: P=0.039; and Tmin: P=0.004). Medial-lateral claw temperature differences between baseline with after trimming values were also statistically significant (ΔTmax: P=0.050; ΔTave: P=0.001; and ΔTmin: P=0.019). In conclusion, claw trimming increased the solar surface temperature values of the claw sole in this study. In the present study, claw sole temperature values were relatively higher on lateral than medial claws both for the baseline and after trimming. In future studies, the reliability of the current method
can be demonstrated by comparing thermography to other evaluation methods.