First cases of contagious ovine digital dermatitis in Germany
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Acta Veterinaria Scandinavica Open Access
CASE REPORT
First cases of contagious ovine digital dermatitis in Germany Philip Christian Tegtmeyer1†, Gareth James Staton2†, Nicholas James Evans2, Judith Rohde3, Teresa Maria Punsmann1 and Martin Ganter1*
Abstract Contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD) is a significant disease of the ovine foot characterised by severe lameness and progressive separation of the hoof horn capsule from the underlying tissue. Similar to bovine digital dermatitis (BDD), pathogenic members of the genus Treponema including the Treponema medium phylogroup, Treponema phagedenis phylogroup and Treponema pedis are frequently found together in CODD lesions. To date, CODD was only described in Ireland and the United Kingdom. In northern Germany, cases of an unusually severe lameness presented in a sheep flock that had been affected by footrot for several years. These cases were non-responsive to conventional footrot therapies, with some sheep exhibiting substantial lesions of the claw horn that resulted in horn detachment. Lesion swab samples were collected from both clinically affected and asymptomatic animals. In all clinically affected sheep, CODD-associated Treponema phylogroups were detected by polymerase chain reaction. This is the first report of CODD in Germany and mainland Europe, indicating a wider geographic spread than previously considered. In cases of severe lameness attributed to claw lesions in sheep that fail to respond to footrot treatment, CODD should be considered irrespective of geographic location. Keywords: Footrot, Lameness, Sheep, Treponema Background A novel disease of sheep claws, termed contagious ovine digital dermatitis (CODD), was first described in the UK in 1997 [1]. The disease is characterised by severe lameness associated with initial inflammation of the coronary band. The disease usually begins with an infection of the claw horn at the coronet, which underruns the hoof horn capsule abaxially. Subsequently, there is a progressive separation of the claw from the underlying tissue. In severe cases, the entire claw horn may be avulsed, leaving the sensitive lamellae exposed [1–5]. The consequences *Correspondence: martin.ganter@tiho‑hannover.de † Philip Christian Tegtmeyer and Gareth James Staton contributed equally to this work 1 Clinic for Swine, Small Ruminants and Forensic Medicine, University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover, Foundation, Bischofsholer Damm 15, 30173 Hannover, Germany Full list of author information is available at the end of the article
of the severe lameness include poor body condition and frequent recumbency [1, 4, 6]. In sheep, other causes of infectious lameness, including footrot and interdigital dermatitis, are frequently diagnosed. Ovine footrot, is considered to be caused by Dichelobacter nodosus and Fusobacterium necrophorum, and is strongly associated with CODD [7]. However, despite the detection of D. nodosus and F. necrophorum in CODD [2, 8], the disease is regarded as distinct from footrot or the associated condition, ovine i
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