Ketoprofen for a National Lameness Control Project

Tender description

The University of Nottingham wishes to Contract for a single contractor to supply and deliver Ketoprofen for a National Lameness Control Project. Lameness remains at unacceptably high levels in developed dairy production systems around the world. The disease compromises welfare but also significantly undermining production and negatively impacting on public perceptions of the industry. The lesions of claw horn disruption (principally sole haemorrhage, sole ulcer and white line disease) are the most common causes of lameness on many farms. Despite their prevalence the causes and prevention of these lesions remains relatively poorly understood. As part of a 5 year Research Partnership with the University of Nottingham and collaborators, AHDB Dairy (the levy body for GB dairy farmers, https://dairy.ahdb.org.uk) funded a successful programme of lameness research which ended in May 2016. A large scale (~600 cows), long term (~3 years), positively controlled randomised clinical trial will be conducted on a commercial dairy farm in Nottinghamshire, starting in the Autumn of 2017. It will be designed and conducted to investigate the impact of targeted additional treatment with NSAID on future lameness risk and productivity. Low, medium and high intervention groups (compared to a no additional treatment positive control group) will receive the anti-inflammatory Ketoprofen associated with some or all of the following events: calving, foot trimming, a treatment for lameness and an elevated mobility score(s). Points of intervention and duration of anti-inflammatory treatment in the three intervention groups will be decided by a project steering group due to be convened in Spring 2017. Measured outcomes will include lifetime lameness events (mobility score and treatment incidence), health and production data (e.g. milk yield, fertility), and changes to distal limb anatomy (assessed by ultrasound examination in standing cows and by CT, MRI and histopathology in culled cows). Multivariable statistical approaches will be used to investigate the associations between outcomes and treatment group as well as other explanatory variables. The potential cost benefit will be calculated for all levels of anti-inflammatory intervention. This exciting project brings together the GB dairy industry levy board, wider stake holders with an interest in lameness control and a collaborative team of lameness researchers with international reputations in their fields. The research team comprises a diverse skill set and has a proven track record of undertaking and analysing this type of study and publishing outcomes in sector leading journals.