Although a cause for concern in farmers, inflammation in female dairy

But how can which be directly placed after cattle? Wouldn't it be then modifying cattle and not inflammation?

Let’s look at it logically and not literally. The word cattle is treated as plural , so , a singular verb such ‘occurs’ is inapt; hence 'which' should be referring to a singular noun i.e., inflammation. Secondly, what kind of meaning is conveyed by the statement, “cattle, which occurs after birth”. In view of the absurdity in logic, the touch rule has been given a go-by in this context.

Many of you missed an important meaning error in B.
"which occurs commonly just after birth" - this means that just after birth the inflamation in pregnant female cattle happens. This changes the meaning.
Choice B should be "Although inflammation in female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly after they give birth, is a cause for concern among farmers"
Refer : https://www.gmatfree.com/module-76/dairy-cattle/

A debatable OA
In B, the reference to pregnant cattle is devoid of logic. Pregnant cattle are no more pregnant after they give birth. We might at best say simply, cattle after delivering the calves. The touch rule reference of ", which" to inflammation is equally pointless

Hi, the "which" clause is modifying the whole noun clause "inflammation in female dairy cattle".

Let us analyze, by removing the fluff.

Although a cause for concern in farmers, inflammation in female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly after they give birth -- many disorders, including metabolic diseases such as ketosis and fatty liver, are known to occur at this time -- it is believed to play a beneficial role in the complex process of going from late pregnancy to lactation.

(A) Although a cause for concern among farmers, inflammation in pregnant female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly just after birth - it is believed to play a beneficial role in the complex process of going from late pregnancy to lactation

WRONG - double subject error, as first independent clause is not complete.

(B) Although inflammation in pregnant female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly just after birth, is a cause for concern among farmers
CORRECT - also "which" non vital modifier correctly modies inflammation, in pregnant female dairy cattle - prepositional phrase is vital modifier for inflammation. This is exception to touch rule in which a vital modifier can inserted between noun and non-vital modifier.

(C) Although a cause for concern among farmers, inflammation in female dairy cattle, occurring commonly after birth
WRONG - same as A, double subject error.

(D) Occurring commonly after birth, inflammation in female dairy cattle is a cause for concern among farmers

Looks wordy to me, also there is no expression of although to give a connection in terms of meaning between two clauses

(E) Inflammation in pregnant female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly after birth, although it is a cause for concern among farmers
WRONG - same as A - double subject error

Experts, please add/correct if anything wrong.

Thanks

Although a cause for concern in farmers, inflammation in female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly after they give birth -- many disorders, including metabolic diseases such as ketosis and fatty liver, are known to occur at this time -- it is believed to play a beneficial role in the complex process of going from late pregnancy to lactation.


(A) Although a cause for concern among farmers, inflammation in pregnant female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly just after birth --> no main verb in the Although clause
(B) Although inflammation in pregnant female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly just after birth, is a cause for concern among farmers --> correct

(C) Although a cause for concern among farmers, inflammation in female dairy cattle, occurring commonly after birth --> no main verb in the Although clause

(D) Occurring commonly after birth, inflammation in female dairy cattle is a cause for concern among farmers --> two ICs w/o any conjunction

(E) Inflammation in pregnant female dairy cattle, which occurs commonly after birth, although it is a cause for concern among farmers --> ambiguous antecedent of "it"?

A puts necessary information between commas, so it is wrong. B seems to be correct right now, so I am favoring it. C has the ‘missing verb’ flaw. D is not entirely clear, what birth are we talking about ? E also has no verb.

So since B is the only one without outstanding flaws, we shall go with B.

Official Explanation

Creating a filter: the original sentence is defective. Namely, the portion before the dash gives us the subject of a sentence, "inflammation," and that subject never receives a grammatical predicate after the dash, because a new grammatical subject is introduced with "it." So (A) is out. We need a complete clause with subject and verb prior to the dash, not a hanging grammatical subject.

Applying the filter: (C) and (E) are both hanging subjects, so we're down to (B) and (D).

Finding objective defects: plugging (B) into the original sentence sounds good. Plugging in (D) sounds wrong. The reason is that, since there is no conjunction after the dashes and the clause after the dashes is an independent clause, the clause before the dashes must be dependent. The word "although" does the trick to make (B) dependent.

The correct answer is (B).

Hello from the GMAT Club VerbalBot!

Thanks to another GMAT Club member, I have just discovered this valuable topic, yet it had no discussion for over a year. I am now bumping it up - doing my job. I think you may find it valuable (esp those replies with Kudos).

Want to see all other topics I dig out? Follow me (click follow button on profile). You will receive a summary of all topics I bump in your profile area as well as via email.