Bovine digital dermatitis (BDD/Mortellaro disease) causes painful lameness in dairy and beef cattle globally. Effective footbathing and treatment protocols reduce suffering and production losses.
BDD causes acute and chronic pain that significantly compromises cattle welfare. Active strawberry-like lesions are extremely painful to touch and cause lameness that reduces grazing, social activity, and production. The scale of BDD in infected herds — potentially affecting 60-80% of animals — means the welfare impact is enormous. Control requires a systematic approach: regular, correctly managed footbathing to reduce environmental bacterial load, prompt identification and treatment of active cases, and management of the chronic M4 lesion reservoir. Pain assessment in BDD cattle reveals that active lesions cause pain of comparable severity to other recognised painful conditions, justifying systemic analgesic treatment alongside topical therapy in severely affected individuals.