Disease incidence in dairy herds in the Southern highlands district of NewSouth Wales, Australia

The purpose of this study was to determine clinical disease incidence in ei ght non-seasonally calving, pasture-fed dairy herds in the southern highlan ds district of New South Wales. This was a longitudinal population study. T he study included all cows that calved between January 1994 and December 19 95 and consisted of 2111 lactation records from 1430 cows. The incidence of the more common diseases were: calving-associated disorders, 18.0 cases pe r 100 calvings (95% CI 16.4-19.8 cases pr 100 calvings); metabolic disorder s, 5.5 cases per 100 cow-yr at risk (95% CI 4.5-6.6 cases per 100 cow-yr at risk); reproductive-tract disorders, 22.3 cases per 100 cow-yr at risk (95 % CI 19.2-25.8 cases per 100 cow-yr at risk); udder disorders, 17.6 cases p er 100 cow-yr at risk (95% CI 15.9-19.5 cow-yr at risk) and lameness, 3.7 c ases per 100 cow-yr at risk (95% CI 2.9-4.7 cow-yr at risk). In agreement w ith dairy-cow disease-incidence studies conducted elsewhere, disorders of t he reproductive-tract and udder were the most frequent clinical conditions- encountered. These findings confirm that dairy herd-health programs should emphasise the control of these two groups of disorders. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V, All rights reserved.