Objective: To determine risk factors associated with identification of an umbilical hernia during the first 2 months after birth in Holstein heifers.
Design: Case-control study.
Animals: 322 Holstein heifers born in a single herd (45 with an umbilical hernia and 277 without).
Procedure: Risk factors that were examined included sire, whether the dam had a history of umbilical hernia, milk yield, duration of gestation, whether the dam had a history of dystocia, whether the heifer had a twin, birth weight, total serum protein concentration, and whether the heifer had an umbilical infection. Logistic regression was used to analyze risk factors.
Results: Heifers born to sires with > or = 3 progeny with an umbilical hernia were 2.31 times as likely to develop an umbilical hernia as were heifers born to sires with < or = 2 progeny with an umbilical hernia. Heifers with umbilical infection were 5.65 times as likely to develop an umbilical hernia as were heifers without umbilical infection.
Conclusions and clinical relevance: Sire and umbilical infection were associated with risk of an umbilical hernia during the first 2 months of life in Holstein heifers. Attributable proportion analysis indicated that the frequency of umbilical hernias in Holstein heifers with umbilical infection would have been reduced by 82% if umbilical infection had been prevented.