From: “It’s just how she walks…” to “… any lameness is a welfare issue”– stakeholders’ perspectives on chronic lameness in dairy cows

Lameness in dairy cows is a prevalent welfare problem and imposes direct and indirect economic costs on producers. Lameness can be acute or chronic, however, a shared definition of what constitutes chronic lameness is currently lacking amongst stakeholders. Our study used structured interviews to address this gap. We interviewed 22 UK-based participants (eight veterinarians, eight dairy farmers, three foot-trimmers; two were veterinarians and dairy farmers; another was a farmer and foot trimmer). Stakeholder responses found good agreement with work done by previous authors, eg on behavioural and production-related lameness indicators; and that lame cows experience pain because of their lameness and, thus, suffer compromised welfare. Participants used descriptive terms (eg ‘recurrent’) and suggested measurable characteristics (eg bout duration) to define chronic lameness. Stakeholders reported that chronic lameness not only affects cow welfare but also reduces the wellbeing of people working with them; and also raised concerns over the environmental costs of chronic lameness, such as increased culling and reduced sustainability. Developing some of our findings into a future definition of chronic lameness would be the first step in understanding and quantifying the extent of this problem.