The results of the first large-scale study of damage to tails in different parts of New Zealand have been released. Over the four years that researchers looked into this topic, they found that the number of broken tails has been going up, but they don’t know why.
Tail damage is becoming more and more of a welfare issue, but there hasn’t been a lot of good data on it until now.
As an epidemiologist at VetSouth, Peter Moono was in charge of the study.
“Our study is just the beginning. “The sector wants to learn more about the problem and figure out what the risks are,” says Moono.
In the last few years, there have been a number of high-profile prosecutions in New Zealand, but Moono thinks it is hard to analyse because there isn’t enough research and knowledge on the subject.
“In our study, up to 20% of the herd had some kind of damage to their tails. Even though we think it should be 0%, that’s not what we see on the ground, so we need more information to help us figure out what realistic expectations are.”
The study used information from the WelFarm programme, which keeps track of how animals are treated. Farms that participate in the programme through their veterinarian get an annual tail audit, during which every tail is looked at by a vet or technician and any injuries are put into a standard category. The programme gave information about more than 54,000 cows over the course of four seasons.
“All of the farms in the study had some cows with tail damage,” says Moono. “This was in line with the results of a study done in Ireland, which found that 90% of the farms had cows with damaged tails on both visits.”
“And we found that there was a lot of difference between regions and between farms.”
The researchers’ main goal was to find out how many cows had tails that were turned in the wrong direction. They also wanted to know how many cows had shorter tails, tails with soft tissue, or any other kind of damage to their tails.
Most people think that docking, or cutting off the tails of animals, was once a common way to manage farms. It was mostly done to help stop leptospirosis, and it was also thought that docking tails would make the udders cleaner before and after calves were born. But in 2018, New Zealand made it illegal to cut off the tail in any way.
Tail damage is becoming more and more of a welfare concern.
Peter Moono, an epidemiologist, has been in charge of a four-year study on cow tail damage and has found that it is getting worse.
People think that the way a shed is built or how it is run may have a big impact on how often tail damage happens. The way the staff is trained could also be a factor. But it’s hard to figure out exactly what’s happening and what the risks are. No welfare violations were being looked into for any of the farms in the study.
“In our conclusion, we said that more work should be done to look at individual farms and follow animals through different seasons to help figure out what might be causing the problems,” says Moono.
“Cows move around a lot in their lives. For example, they spend time grazing. Since we don’t know where the problem is coming from, it would be easy to figure out when and where it is happening if we checked between the cows’ moves.”
In the published research, it is suggested that tails should be checked at least once a year from the time they are young to find out when they are most likely to get hurt. Due to a greater focus on animal welfare, many veterinary clinics now offer a service to score the tails of cats and dogs.
The Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures programme of the Ministry of Primary Industries is also funding a four-year study on tail damage. It is run by veterinarians who are trying to find answers to many questions about tail damage. For example, they are trying to figure out what causes certain injuries and what changes might make things better.
Mark Bryan, a veterinarian and the managing director of VetSouth, says, “We hope this work will help the New Zealand dairy and veterinary sectors, as well as the regulatory authorities, work together and support a national approach to tail scoring.”
“This will give all stakeholders access to meaningful benchmarks and encourage them to take more steps to understand and reduce the risk of tail injuries in dairy cattle.”
