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New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks

Lameness in sheep continues to be a global health, welfare and economic concern. Damaged, misshapen or overgrown feet have the potential to cause lameness either directly, or indirectly. There is a lack of understanding of the predisposing factors for different hoof conformation traits in sheep. Our...

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Autores principales: Best, Caroline M., Roden, Janet, Phillips, Kate, Pyatt, Alison Z., Behnke, Malgorzata C.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8473389/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34564570
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8090176
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author Best, Caroline M.
Roden, Janet
Phillips, Kate
Pyatt, Alison Z.
Behnke, Malgorzata C.
author_facet Best, Caroline M.
Roden, Janet
Phillips, Kate
Pyatt, Alison Z.
Behnke, Malgorzata C.
author_sort Best, Caroline M.
collection PubMed
description Lameness in sheep continues to be a global health, welfare and economic concern. Damaged, misshapen or overgrown feet have the potential to cause lameness either directly, or indirectly. There is a lack of understanding of the predisposing factors for different hoof conformation traits in sheep. Our exploratory study aimed to investigate the prevalence of, and risk factors for, three distinct hoof conformation traits relating to the sole and heel, hoof wall, and hoof wall overgrowth. Feet of 400 ewes from four UK commercial sheep farms were inspected at four time points across 12 months. For each conformation trait, a four-point ordinal system was used to score each individual claw, and foot-level scores were calculated. We present 92.4% of foot-level observations to be affected by ≥1 conformation traits. Whilst hoof conformation traits were correlated to some degree, a unique set of sheep-, foot- and farm-level factors were associated with each distinct conformation trait. We provide, for the first time, key insight into the multifaceted and multifactorial aetiology of hoof conformation in sheep, building upon previous landmark studies. Our results inform hypotheses for future prospective studies investigating the risk factors for adverse hoof conformation in sheep.
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spelling pubmed-84733892021-09-28 New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks Best, Caroline M. Roden, Janet Phillips, Kate Pyatt, Alison Z. Behnke, Malgorzata C. Vet Sci Article Lameness in sheep continues to be a global health, welfare and economic concern. Damaged, misshapen or overgrown feet have the potential to cause lameness either directly, or indirectly. There is a lack of understanding of the predisposing factors for different hoof conformation traits in sheep. Our exploratory study aimed to investigate the prevalence of, and risk factors for, three distinct hoof conformation traits relating to the sole and heel, hoof wall, and hoof wall overgrowth. Feet of 400 ewes from four UK commercial sheep farms were inspected at four time points across 12 months. For each conformation trait, a four-point ordinal system was used to score each individual claw, and foot-level scores were calculated. We present 92.4% of foot-level observations to be affected by ≥1 conformation traits. Whilst hoof conformation traits were correlated to some degree, a unique set of sheep-, foot- and farm-level factors were associated with each distinct conformation trait. We provide, for the first time, key insight into the multifaceted and multifactorial aetiology of hoof conformation in sheep, building upon previous landmark studies. Our results inform hypotheses for future prospective studies investigating the risk factors for adverse hoof conformation in sheep. MDPI 2021-08-30 /pmc/articles/PMC8473389/ /pubmed/34564570 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8090176 Text en © 2021 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Best, Caroline M.
Roden, Janet
Phillips, Kate
Pyatt, Alison Z.
Behnke, Malgorzata C.
New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks
title New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks
title_full New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks
title_fullStr New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks
title_full_unstemmed New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks
title_short New Insight into the Prevalence and Risk Factors for Three Distinct Hoof Conformation Traits in UK Commercial Sheep Flocks
title_sort new insight into the prevalence and risk factors for three distinct hoof conformation traits in uk commercial sheep flocks
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8473389/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34564570
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/vetsci8090176
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