Comparison of Clinic - Histopathologic Findings and Morphometric Measurements of Subclinical Laminitic Claws in Dairy Cattle

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinic-histopathologic characteristics and to compare themorphometric measurements of healthy and subclinical laminitic claws of dairy cattle at differentages and weights. Non-lame 60 Holstein feet randomly collected from the slaughterhouse wereevaluated. The effects of age, body-weight, claw location (right front lateal or right front medialetc), and presence of laminitis were investigated. The claws’ conformation were evaluatedmorphometrically with ten measurements (toe length, toe height, outer and inner edges of the claw,heel height, the length of heel, the length of diagonal front wall, dorsal hoof angle, the width and thelength of the sole). The claws were classified as normal or laminitic according to the histopathologicfindings. The clinical findings of laminitis was confirmed on 71.2% of the claws (n=66). The toelength, toe height, the height of outer and inner edges of the claw, heel height, the length of heel, thelength of diagonal front wall were smaller in laminitic claws. The dorsal hoof angle of healthy clawswere bigger and statistically significant than the laminitic claws. Small haemorrhagic areas weredetermined in the parietal corium in the laminitic claws comparing to macroscopically healthyclaws. The histopathologic characteristics of the corium of laminitic claws involve the hyperaemia,haemorrhages, oedema, thrombosis of capillaries and presence of mononuclear cell infiltration indermis, stretching epidermal lamella, necrosis of epithelial cells and detachment of the lamellarbasement membrane. According to this study results, contrary to literature, there was not a reliablerelation between some changes in morphological structure of the claws and the presence of thelaminitis were observed.