Applying Haddon’s matrix to bovine injury prevention: An example using white line disease

Haddon’s matrix is a model used to conceptualize injury occurrence. This model defines injury as energy transfer, by the agent to the host, in quantities or rates exceeding the tolerance of the host’s tissue. While this approach has been used in human injury research for over 30 years to identify risk factors and develop preventive interventions, we have not seen it applied to animal injury. Lameness, an etiologically complex condition, is a source of both economic losses and welfare concerns to the cattle industry. We introduce Haddon’s matrix as an approach to viewing traumatic animal injury using bovine white line disease as an example.