Elsevier

Injury

Volume 42, Issue 10, October 2011, Pages 1084-1087
Injury

Cattle associated trauma – A one year prospective study of all injuries

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.injury.2011.02.019Get rights and content

Abstract

Aim

To prospectively study all types and frequency of injuries resulting from direct contact with cattle in an occupational setting.

Methods

Prospective evaluation of all injuries due to direct contact with cattle presenting to the Emergency Department (ED) of a rural District General Hospital over a one year period.

Results

Injuries related to cattle were a common reason for presentation to the ED. Some clear patterns of injury were noted. Injuries to the upper extremity were particularly common, especially the hand and wrist and were associated with particular activities and mechanisms. Truncal injuries were less common but do have the potential for serious morbidity and mortality as noted in previous studies.

Conclusions

Injuries related to direct contact with cattle are common. We noted an as yet unreported common pattern of injury to the hands of workers kicked whilst handling cattle at milking time. We also noted the previously recognized potential for serious injury due to more proximal body trauma whilst working with large animals. Whilst there is some work available pertaining to injury prevention in this industry, our study demonstrates a need for further work to be done to minimize and prevent future injuries.

Introduction

The purpose of our study was to prospectively evaluate all injuries caused by direct contact with cattle presenting to a hospital Emergency Department (ED). Whilst serious injury and deaths have been reported in the literature, less severe injuries may occur more frequently but have not previously been studied. Cattle are large, strong animals and can be unpredictable in their behaviour. Beef cattle may weigh over 400 kg,2 and can cause serious injury to humans. One study that retrospectively analysed all animal related injuries presenting to a single institution found that whilst cattle only accounted for 5% of total injuries, they accounted for 55% of total hospitalizations.13 Another series from the United States showed that of the over 6000 farming related injuries sustained by youth in a single year, cattle accounted for 31%.8

Beef and dairy farming are important industries in New Zealand, and represent a significant economic activity and provider of employment. As of June 2009 there were an estimated 5.9 million dairy and 4.1 million beef cattle in New Zealand. Cattle numbers have recently increased significantly in the Southland Region and in 2009 there were an estimated 589,000 dairy and 191,000 beef cattle.1 In the year to December 2008 dairy exports were worth over NZ$8 billion (US$6 billion) and beef exports more than NZ$2 billion (US$1.5 billion).

We have been aware of injuries related to cattle over the past years, including the occasional serious trauma. For this reason we decided to prospectively evaluate this little studied area. The study received prior approval by the Otago Southland Regional Ethics Committee under the expedited review of observational studies pathway.

Section snippets

Methods

We prospectively studied all patients attending the ED of Southland Hospital who had been injured by contact with cattle over the period of one calendar year from 1 January 2009 to 31 December 2009. The one year period of the study was chosen in view of the seasonal nature of dairy and beef farming, as activities related to this, and hence injuries may vary according to the season. Southland Hospital is the sole major secondary care facility in the Southland region and serves an urban

Results

Over the one year period of the study 78 patient presentations were identified as injuries occurring whilst working with cattle and consented to be included in the study. Whilst there were 78 presentations, this represented 73 individual patients, as five patients presented on two separate occasions for different injuries. Demographics of the study population are shown in Table 1. Just over two-thirds of the injured patients (68%) were males and nearly one-third (32%) were females. The average

Discussion

We prospectively studied all injuries associated with cattle handling in a defined area over a one year period. As previous studies have documented, these injuries included potentially serious injuries to the trunk and head. We also noted that there were many less serious injuries and that a significant number of these injuries were to the hand and wrist, a body region not previously noted to be at risk when working with cattle. Most of these injuries occurred during the milking of dairy cattle.

Conflicts of interest

There are no conflicts of interest related to this research and this paper.

Acknowledgements

This study received support in the form of data tabulation, research and assistance provided by a research assistant funded by the Southland Medical Research Foundation. Thanks also to Dr. Adam McLeay for proof reading the original submission.

References (15)

There are more references available in the full text version of this article.

Cited by (27)

  • Opportunities for improving the safety of dairy parlor workers

    2021, Journal of Dairy Science
    Citation Excerpt :

    This finding was significantly different from the 69% males and 31% females estimated to work in the dairy industry (Statistics New Zealand, 2013). For context, Watts and Meisel (2011) reported in Southland (New Zealand) a split related to sex of 68 and 32% relating to all injuries caused by all cattle. International studies have reported a greater incidence of injury for female workers milking (Stål et al., 1996).

  • The dangers of pets and horses, animal related injuries in the Emergency department

    2019, Trauma Case Reports
    Citation Excerpt :

    In rural areas more cattle related injuries can be expected. This has also been described in literature and these injuries can be expected to be more severe [12,13]. Since the medical charts of the patients were retrospectively analyzed there could be an underestimation of the number of animal related injuries.

View all citing articles on Scopus
View full text