Lameness in Adult Sheep and Goats in Greece: Prevalence, Predictors, Treatment, Importance for Farmers

The present study refers to an extensive investigation of lameness performed countrywide in Greece, on 325 sheep and 119 goat farms. The specific objectives of this work were to present data on the occurrence of lameness on sheep and goat farms and to identify variables (including variables related to climatic factors) associated with the disorder on the farms. Farms were visited and animals on the farm were assessed for the presence of lameness; further, an interview was carried out with the farmer to obtain information regarding practices applied on the farm. Climatic variables at the location of each farm were derived from NASA research. The within farm prevalence rate varied from 0.0% to 25.0% in sheep flocks and from 0.0% to 30.0% in goat herds. The mean ± standard error (median (interquartile range)) within farm prevalence rate among sheep farms was 1.9% ± 0.2 (0.0% (0.0%)); among goat farms, it was 2.6% ± 0.5% (0.0% (0.0%)). Multivariable analysis for within farm prevalence of lameness revealed three significant predictors in sheep farms: application of vaccination against foot-rot, increased precipitation at the farm location and longer annual grazing period for sheep, and one in goat farms: increased precipitation at the farm location. Treatment of lameness involved mostly administration of antibiotics (on 104 farms); the antibiotics administered most often were lincomycin (on 69 farms) and oxytetracycline (on 33 farms). There was a tendency for higher median within farm prevalence of lameness among farms where no antibiotic administration was practiced. Finally, 6.2% of sheep farmers and 4.2% of goat farmers considered lameness as an important health problem for the animals, specifically the third and fifth most important problem on the respective farms.