Prevalence of lameness in dairy cows: A literature review

Lameness in dairy cows has major negative impacts on animal welfare and production economy. While previous studies have evaluated the prevalence of lameness in single countries, the present literature review is the first overview of the prevalence of lameness in dairy cows globally. This literature review identified 53 studies reporting prevalence of lameness among representative samples of dairy cows and fulfilling a number of specified inclusion criteria (e.g., at least 10 herds and 200 cows, and locomotion scoring by trained observers). A total of 414,950 cows from 3945 herds were included in these 53 studies, which spanned a 30-year period (1989-2020) and included herds from six continents, with the majority from Europe and North America. Across the studies, the mean prevalence of lameness (typically defined as score 3-5 on a 1-5 scale) was 22.8% with a median of 22.0% and a range between studies from 5.1% to 45%, and a within herd range from 0% to 88%. The mean prevalence of severely lame cows (typically defined as score 4-5 on a 1-5 scale) was 7.0% with a median of 6.5% and a range between studies from 1.8% to 21.2%, and a within herd range from 0% to 65%. Over time, it appears that the prevalence of lameness has changed very little. Several different locomotion scoring systems and definitions of (severe) lameness were used across the 53 studies, and this may have affected the reported lameness prevalence. Sampling of herds and cows, inclusion criteria and representativeness also differed between studies. This review offers recommendations for the future capture of information on lameness in dairy cows and identifies potential knowledge gaps.