Evaluation of three commercial hoof-care products used in footbaths in Danish dairy herds.

Digital dermatitis is a serious problem in dairy production in many countries. Footbaths have been used extensively for the prevention and cure of digital dermatitis. But there is a lack of scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of hoof-care products used in footbaths. The objective was to evaluate 3 commercial hoof-care products in 12 Danish dairy herds (testing each product in 4 herds) using a controlled clinical trial. One-half of the herds were conventional and the other half was organically managed. The hoof-care products represented the 3 main groups of active compounds currently legal in Denmark [glutaraldehyde (Virocid), organic acids (Kickstart 2), and quaternary ammonium compounds (Hoofcare DA)]. A split footbath was used, with one side of the cow treated and the other side as a negative control. In each herd, 100 cows were selected randomly. All digital dermatitis lesions were recorded during hoof trimming at the start of the study. The mean prevalence of active digital dermatitis lesions on the hind legs was 21.8 and 22.7% for treatment and control sides, respectively. All cows walked through the footbath 2 d/wk for 8 wk. After 8 wk of treatment the cows were examined again and all lesions were recorded. In each herd, the percentage of cows was calculated with active digital dermatitis lesions at the start of the study that were cured during the study period (termed percentage cured) and the percentage of cows with new infections during the study period (termed percentage new infections). Percentage cured ranged from 13.6 to 100, and percentage new infections ranged from 0 to 35.5. For all hoof-care products, the difference between treatment and control sides was not statistically significant. Overall, there was no effect on percentage cured or percentage new infections for any of the tested hoof-care products.