Digital dermatitis is a highly contagious bacterial disease causing painful foot lesions in cattle. Prevention through footbathing, housing management, and early treatment is more effective and welfare-positive than treating established disease.
Digital dermatitis is one of the most painful lameness conditions in dairy and beef cattle, causing acute suffering during the active ulcerative phase. The high contagiousness means that poor control results in rapid whole-herd spread. The welfare cost of unchecked digital dermatitis is enormous - chronic pain affecting hundreds of animals simultaneously. Prevention is dramatically more effective than treatment, and herds with systematic control programmes achieve very low prevalence, demonstrating what is achievable.