In a standard Irish dairy herd with just a 10% prevalence of lameness, annual costs can be as high as €8,570 per year, Animal Health Ireland (AHI) has said.

Lameness costs the Irish dairy industry €129m annually, according to assistant professor at the school of veterinary medicine in UCD Eoin Ryan.

Approximately one in 10 Irish dairy cows are lame at any one time, with levels rising to over 30% in some herds.

"We have some herds in the country where a third of cows could be lame and they're suffering costs up to €20,000 or €30,000 a year in lameness. Because of that, early detection and treatment is absolutely very important.

The monitoring of lameness can be done by mobility scoring, Ryan said, and it is possible to get lameness lower than 10%.

"A recent Teagasc study has shown that the top 20% of Irish herds had a lameness prevelance as low as 5%, which is absolutely brilliant and meeting all world targets. It is possible to do and record keeping is very important to this," he said.

Genetics

Cows have a genetic predisposition to lameness and those that are genetically poor on health traits have a 44% higher prevalence for lameness, Ryan explained.

"It is important to select bulls that have a favourable health sub index in terms of tackling this issue.

A new series of short videos on dairy cow lameness has been launched online by AHI.

The series was officially launched on Wednesday 2 July by Minister of State at the Department of Agriculture Noel Grealish at the Teagasc dairy open day in Moorepark, Fermoy, Co Cork.