A Study of Milker’s Callus in Milk Men

Abstract

The study was conducted on 50 milkmen in Pondicherry, India to acquire first-hand information on age, sex, pattern of milking, number of years in milking profession, number of animals milked per day, average time taken for milking per animal and details of the lesions on their thumbs etc. It was observed that and the professional milkers were male and the female milkers milked only their own cows. All the milkmen were apparently healthy and followed only knuckling pattern of milking. Number of years in milking profession ranged from 12 to 30 and total number of animals milked per day ranged from 3 to 50. Average time taken for milking per animal was 8 minutes. Milker’s calluses of different size were seen on the inter-phalangeal joint on the plantar surface of their thumbs. The size of the lesion (from a digital photograph using Imagej software) on the right thumb was bigger than that of the left thumb. Pain in hands along with back/shoulder pain while milking, was reported by all the milkers.