Hooves preserve the isotopic information laid down during their growth and may be used for reconstruction of animal feeding history. To assign certain positions along hooves to corresponding times, growth rates are required. Hoof growth rates are known for domestic animals; however, they cannot be obtained easily in wild animals. We estimated the hoof growth rate of the European roe deer (Capre...

One of the most important hoof diseases is laminitis. Yet, the pathology of laminitis is not fully understood. Different bacterial toxins, e.g. endotoxins or exotoxins, seem to play an important role. Additionally, ingestion of mycotoxins, toxic secondary metabolites of fungi, might contribute to the onset of laminitis. In this respect, fumonsins are of special interest since horses are regarde...

Properties of sport surfaces influence the occurrence of injuries and the performance of equine athletes. The sports governing body seeks to develop standards for safety and performance of show jumping surfaces. Limited information is available to guide this process. Objective methods are warranted in order to define surface properties that can be associated to injury and performance data. Desc...

Reports of free-ranging Roosevelt elk (Cervus elaphus roosevelti) with abnormal hooves and lameness increased significantly in southwestern Washington, USA, during winter 2008. In March 2009 we examined five severely affected elk with clinical lameness from this region to characterize hoof lesions, examine the general health of affected elk, and potentially identify etiologies causing hoof dise...

frog. The wall is simply that part of the hoof that is visible when the horse is standing. It covers the front and sides of the third phalanx, or coffin bone. The wall is made up of the toe (front), quarters (sides) and heel. When the foot is lifted off the ground, the sole and frog are visible, as well as the bars of the wall and the collateral grooves (see Figure 1). The wall of the hoof is c...

This paper is a baseline study to present the initial outcomes of data collected in a sample of EU donkey farms using the AWIN welfare assessment protocol for donkeys, comprehensive of 22 valid, reliable and feasible animal-based indicators. A total of 20 donkey facilities (N = 12 in Italy and N = 8 in United Kingdom) were visited and 278 donkeys of different breed, aged 2-45 years, were assess...

Fungal infections of skin and/or nails are common diseases resulting in major challenges in topical treatment. Therefore, the objective of the present study was to develop a dermal formulation targeting both tinea pedis and onychomycosis. The antifungal agent ciclopirox olamine (CPX) was incorporated into a variety of poloxamer 407-based formulations and analysed regarding its in vitro permeati...

serum level of zinc, copper, β-carotene, vitamin a, and concentrations of zn and cu in hoof of 97multiparous holstein dairy cows with different locomotion scores (lss) were evaluated. simultaneously, znand cu concentrations of close up, fresh and high yielding cattle rations were 77, 94, 75 and 31, 28, 22 ppm, respectively. based on lss, despite normal serum copper levels in all three groups, w...