Bovine Ischaemic Teat Necrosis (PhD)

Bovine ischaemic teat necrosis (ITN) is a severe teat disease of dairy cattle with unknown aetiology which presents on the medial aspect of the teat base and spreads down the teat causing intense irritation.

ITN frequently results in extensive self-licking damaging the entire teat.

First reported ten years ago, in the last two years there appears to be an increase in UK reported cases, resulting in severe teat pathology, substantial economic losses and a substantial number of affected cows being culled.

Preliminary microbiological analyses is suggestive of a role for treponemes commonly associated with another severe disease of dairy cattle: bovine digital dermatitis.

Key findings

Bovine ischaemic teat necrosis (ITN):

• is an emerging disease affecting the teats of dairy cows 
• has three clinical presentations 
• animals in the first lactation, in the first 90 days in milk are the most at risk 
• potential farm level risk factors include the presence of milking cows with chapped teats and/or udder cleft dermatitis (UCD) in the herd 
• the cause is still to be determined

The aims of this investigation were to attempt to find out the following: 

• Describe the key presentations of the clinical disease to allow for rapid identification, diagnosis and treatment  
• Survey GB dairy farmers to find out how many had experience with ITN and identify if a potential group of animals are more likely to be affected than others. 
• Identify potential farm level risk factors for further investigation 
• Make progress in dissecting the aetiology (cause) of ITN to be able to then provide evidence based treatment