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Bovine digital dermatitis (DD) is a severe infectious disease causing lameness in dairy cattle worldwide and is an important ruminant welfare problem that has considerable economic issues. Bovine DD is endemic in many regions worldwide and it is important to understand this major disease so that effective control strategies can be identified. There is substantial evidence that specific treponeme phylotypes play an important causative role in bovine DD. This review considers current research, including DD Treponema spp. investigations, associated DD pathobiology, and current and potential treatment and control options. Epidemiological data, alongside new microbiological data, help delineate important transmission routes and reservoirs of infection that allow effective interventions to be identified. Better on-farm housing hygiene, pasture access, routine footbathing and claw trimming with disinfected equipment need to be implemented to significantly reduce the incidence of DD. There is a paucity of peer reviewed research into both commonly used and novel treatments. In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility studies of DD treponemes and effective treatment of human treponematoses clearly indicate that antibiotics frequently selected for DD treatments are not the most efficacious. Whilst there are understandable concerns over milk withdrawal times in dairy cattle, more needs to be done to identify, license and implement more appropriate antibiotic treatments, since continued overuse of less efficacious antibiotics, applied incorrectly, will lead to increased disease recurrence and transmission. More research is needed into methods of preventing DD that circumvent the use of antibiotics, including vaccination and transmission blocking studies, to reduce or hopefully eradicate DD in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Digital dermatitis (DD) is a major infectious lameness of dairy cattle and sheep considered to be caused by treponemes. The aim of this study was to identify antibiotics effective against DD treponemes that might be useful in the treatment of ruminant DD in the future or to identify antibiotics useful in isolation studies. Here, a microdilution method was used to identify in vitro antimicrobial susceptibility of treponemes cultured from DD lesions to eight relevant antibiotics. DD treponemes exhibited highest susceptibility to amoxicillin, azithromycin and gamithromycin. Unfortunately, amoxicillin whilst having potential for DD treatment in other animals (e.g. sheep) would require milk withhold periods in dairy cattle. DD treponemes were not particularly susceptible to two cephalosporins: cefalexin and ceftiofur, which do not require milk withhold. The bacteria demonstrated low susceptibility to trimethoprim and especially colistin suggesting these antimicrobials may be particularly useful in isolation of DD treponemes. The most promising high susceptibility results for macrolides indicate a rationale to consider veterinary licensed macrolides as DD treatments. Furthermore, given the DD treponeme antibiotic susceptibility similarities to established treatments for human treponematoses, identification of treponemacidal, long acting β-lactam analogues not requiring milk withhold may allow for development of a successful treatment for dairy cattle DD. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]