Lameness in Dairy Herds

Here in south of West Bengal, India we have a common problem of lameness in the small land-race cattle that are usually kept in our villages. They are small animals-mature weight about 300 kg, inured to poor food and a hot moist climate. They give little milk and are so skinny that I would hesitate to term them either dairy or beef animals. In Bangladesh they are called as 'Bengali breed'. Much of the south Bengal soil is zinc and boron deficient. Deficiency of both these minerals are known to cause lameness. As overt zinc deficiency symptoms are common,that may be the primary cause. The author has of course pointed to nutritional imbalance as a precipitating cause in his article. Sincerely Debashis Ray