The National Institute for Animal Agriculture hosted animal agriculture leaders that addressed challenges stemming from lameness across all food animal species and have now released a White Paper compiling the findings.

NIAA’s Animal Disease Issues & Emergency Management Council hosted a roundtable discussion lameness across all food animal species at the International Production & Processing Expo (IPPE) in Atlanta, GA in January. This roundtable featured industry experts and explored research regarding causes, prevention methods, and treatment of bone health and lameness-related diseases in livestock and poultry.

“Lameness is a leading problematic sustainability and animal health issue that all livestock species face. We had a great turnout at the roundtable and hope the white paper will lead to more people joining the conversation to collectively address the problems,” said NIAA’s Sustainability Council Chair, Dr. Kaitlyn Briggs, Dairy Welfare Manager at fairlife,LLC.

Lameness could be defined as a disorder of the musculoskeletal system, an injury, disease, or anatomical problem of the affected animal that results in an abnormality or change in gait or stance. Lameness remains a challenging condition to tackle because it is inherently difficult to diagnose with species of food animals presenting vastly different symptoms, ranging from subtle to overt, all at different stages of severity.

The white paper can be accessed at the NIAA website and is complementary to attendees and NIAA members. To become a member for complementary access to NIAA’s resources, visit www.AnimalAgriculture.org.