The International Committee for Animal Recording (ICAR) recently developed and published a colour atlas of claw diseases. This is an exceptional piece of work that not only describes various claw issues, but shows pictures of each ailment to help identify the various problems. This atlas can be used by farmers to help identify different claw ailments in the herd so that animals can receive proper treatment or management issues can be resolved. This also opens up a window for farmer to be able to record these evens so that ICBF can work towards identifying animals that are genetically less likely to suffer from different claw ailments. While this is a helpful tool for Ireland, the atlas will be used as an international standard of identifying claw diseases which can be used to widen the genetic pool of animals for our robustness studies. It is hoped that all technicians and hoof parers in Ireland and across Europe will adopt these definitions to allow the best comparison of data across technicians and countries.

Page 9 of the atlas gives a simple description and key to recording the traits. Pictures of each disorder can be found on the following pages
Page 9 of the atlas gives a specific description and key to recording the traits. Pictures of each disorder can be found on the following pages

The atlas is free to download and can be found by clicking here (Colour Atlas of Claw Diseases). The link to the atlas can also be found on the Health and Disease webpage of ICBF.com.

Well done to ICAR for developing such a great piece of work that will help farmers and hoof trimmers alike.