Experimental reconstruction of teat cutaneous wound by ear skin graft in dairy cattle

BACKGROUND: Teat lacerations are serious injuries thatendanger the survival of a cow within the herd. In excessivelacerations, the wound should be left to heal by second intentionhealing process. However, tissue contraction during healing canchange the alignment of the teat, creating problems for machinemilking. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of the present study was toevaluate the transplantation of the full-thickness free skin graftin excessive teat lacerations. METHODS: Four healthy, nonpregnant,mixed Holstein-Friesian dairy cows with normal teatswere used in the study. Under local anesthesia, a rectangular fullthickness excision (2 Cm×2 Cm) was made on the lateral surfaceof the proximal part of the right and left fore teats of each cow,and simultaneously a rectangular full-thickness free skin graft(1.5 Cm×1.5 Cm) was harvested from the inner surface of the leftpinna. The graft was then meshed and transplanted to the left teatdefect. During a three-week study, the wound healing wasevaluated clinically and at the end of the study, histopathologicsamples (H &E staining) were taken from both wounds.RESULTS: The results of this study demonstrated that in nongraftedwounds, severe wound contraction caused a deformity innormal anatomical structure of the teats. However, in graftedwounds successful graft take was recorded in all wounds, and theteats restored their functional and anatomical structure withsatisfactory cosmetic appearance. CONCLUSIONS:According tothe result of present study, it can be concluded that using fullthicknessfree mesh skin graft can be considered a suitablemethod for treatment of excessive teat lacerations.