Lameness in dairy cows: the developing story.

MY professional career has spanned five decades. In that time I have experienced some major animal health disasters involving cattle. Bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE), foot-and-mouth disease and bovine tuberculosis (TB) have threatened the industry that I serve, and cost millions of pounds. But lameness has inflicted more pain and suffering on more cows during those decades than any, or all, of those animal health catastrophes.