Epidemiology of hoof lesions in Southern Italian dairy cows across hoof-trimming sessions: a retrospective observational pilot study

As part of a nationwide initiative to standardise claw health data in Italian dairy cows, this retrospective observational pilot study used hoof-trimming records from 2023 to 2025 to quantify the prevalence and anatomical distribution of hoof lesions in Southern Italian herds. Data from 94 dairy farms were analysed, comprising 24,158 trimming events from 13,782 unique cows across 246 routine visits conducted for preventive and therapeutic purposes. Records included Farm ID, Cow ID, trimming date, lesion diagnosis and anatomical location, captured using dedicated hoof-trimming software. Lesion presence was defined as a binary outcome and analysed at cow-, farm-, claw- and lesion-type levels. Prevalence estimates were calculated at the cow and farm levels and by lesion type. Claw-level differences were assessed using mixed-effects logistic regression, with lesion presence as the outcome, anatomical site (front lateral, front medial, hind lateral, hind medial) as the explanatory variable, and random intercepts for farm and cow. The median number of cows trimmed per visit was 73.5 (interquartile range: 48.3-110.5), and the median interval between visits was 216.5 days. Overall, cow-level lesion prevalence was 27.4% and decreased with increasing visit size (49.3% in Q1 to 22.5% in Q4). Among 11,408 lesions, digital dermatitis (30.1%) predominated, followed by corkscrew claw (21.4%), white line disease (15.6%) and sole haemorrhage (14.4%). Lesions were more frequent in hind feet (71.5%) than front feet (28.5%). Relative to the front lateral claw, lesion odds were higher in the front medial (odds ratios [OR]: 5.85, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 5.17-6.62) and hind medial claws (OR: 2.53, 95% CI: 2.23-2.89), and highest in the hind lateral claw (OR: 16.93, 95% CI: 14.97-19.14). This study provides region-specific epidemiological evidence within a national claw health framework, highlighting inter-farm heterogeneity and the utility of routine trimming data for future epidemiological and genetic analyses.