Environmental sustainability and ruminant production: A UK veterinary perspective.

Environmental sustainability is an issue of growing importance within the livestock industry, particularly for farmed ruminants. Changes to farming practices made to improve sustainability can have an impact on the health and welfare of animals, and so become the concern of veterinary practitioners. This review outlines the metrics used to measure sustainability and how sustainability interacts with ruminant health and welfare, allowing practitioners to incorporate environmental considerations into their existing livestock work.

A Prospective Cohort Study on the Development of Claw Horn Disruption Lesions in Dairy Cattle; Furthering our Understanding of the Role of the Digital Cushion.

Claw horn disruption lesion (CHDL) is the collective term used to describe non-infectious foot lesions such as sole ulcers (SU), sole hemorrhage (SH), and white line disease (WLD) that commonly affect dairy cattle. The potential role of the bovine digital cushion, an anatomical structure located under the pedal bone and composed mostly of adipose and connective tissue, in the aetiopathogenesis of CHDL has recently been the subject of several studies. The aim of this prospective cohort study is to identify risk factors associated with the development of CHDL and to add further evidence regarding the role of the digital cushion.