Acute phase response and clinical manifestation in outbreaks of interdigital phlegmon in dairy herds

Several Finnish dairy herds have suffered from outbreaks of interdigital phlegmon (IP). In these new types of outbreaks, morbidity was high and clinical signs severe, resulting in substantial economic losses for affected farms. In our study, we visited 18 free stall dairy herds experiencing an outbreak of IP and 3 control herds without a similar outbreak. From a total of 203 sampled cows, 60 suffered from acute stage IP. We demonstrated that acute phase response of bovine IP was evident and therefore an appropriate analgesic should be administered in the treatment of affected animals. The response was most apparent in herds with high morbidity in IP and with a bacterial infection comprising Fusobacterium necrophorum and Dichelobacter nodosus, indicating that combination of these two bacterial species affect the severity of the disease.