How to Prevent and Control Digital Dermatitis or Hairy Heel Warts in Dairy and Beef Cattle
To learn how to accurately identify and record digital dermatitis lesions by stage in your dairy cattle herd, download the DD Check app available from Zinpro.
Digital dermatitis creates an economic cost in the beef feedlot, because the disease reduces cattle mobility and ability to get to the feed bunk regularly. Those losses are measured by decreases in market weight and hot carcass weight. You can reduce the incidence of digital dermatitis and the cost of treating the disease by using a specially formulated trace mineral program that works internally to enhance the animal’s health.
It’s time to revisit the costs of lameness in the beef feedlot. While lameness in cattle is not a new issue, researchers are seeing an increase in feedlot lameness due to digital dermatitis, rather than foot rot, which is the usual culprit. Read about how you can recognize digital dermatitis, what it may be costing you, and solutions for prevention.
Digital dermatitis spreads rapidly once introduced into a herd of dairy cows and a high prevalence is often observed in those herds. Learn more about how performance trace minerals can help control digital dermatitis in heifers and decrease the animal’s risk of being infected during first lactation.