Digital Dermatitis (Heel Warts) in Beef Cattle - An Awareness Campaign By: Dr. Dörte Döpfer, MSc, PhD, University of Wisconsin - Madison Digital dermatitis (DD) or hairy heel warts is a common problem in dairy and beef cattle worldwide that leads to ulcerative lesions along the skin-horn border, the so-called coronary band, mostly in the hind aspects of feet. The resulting lameness becomes more pronounced over time and it is crucial to detect the skin lesions as soon as possible before severe, debilitating lameness and outbreaks of DD occur on average 60 days before harvesting. We have not even begun to estimate the economic losses caused by DD in beef cattle, but for the time being, an estimate of on average $40 per lesion, even the small ones, is a starting point. There is a marked difference in severity of lesions between early season and late season DD lesions on feed yards (Figures 1A, 1B). If we caught DD early, the prospects of successful prevention and control are much better compared to the late season DD lesions..
Fig.1A: Early season M2 lesion, about ‘quarter’ size resulting in lameness grade 2 on the Step-Up scale. This type of active lesion can be treated topically and recurrence prevented through well managed foot baths. This type of lesion can be detected in the squeeze chute or during pen inspections while cattle are at the feed bunk or in the alley ways under dry flooring conditions.
What if early season DD were here and nobody was looking for it? It is the current belief that calves enter the feed yards free of DD, and at the same time one wonders where DD causing the devastating outbreaks of lameness originated from once detected. It seems to “fall from the sky”. I want to convince you that it is an awareness problem that hinders us to detect DD before the large outbreaks happen. We need to go out and confirm as to whether it is actually true that cattle enter feed yards free of signs of DD and we need to actively seek DD lesions before lameness is apparent. pacdvms.com 23
