HEALTH & NUTRITION...
Importance of Protein
for the Pregnant Cow
The biggest factor contributing to calf health is nutrition of the dam during the final three months of pregnancy, and her body condition, says Grandview, Idaho, veterinarian Dick Fredrickson. “If cows are not adequately fed during that time, you’ll have more scours, respiratory disease and other illnesses in calves, and they won’t do as well later.”
The most important ingredient in the cow’s diet, he says, is protein.
“In actuality you are not feeding it to the cow; you are feeding the rumen microbes so she can digest forage. Rumen function is critical, and we have to feed the microbes that are key to the digestion of lower-quality forage,” Fredrickson explains. Click here to read more.
Stopping Disease Spread
MSU STOP sign program may improve health of farm animals across state, country.
Having visitors out to the farm today? Screen 'em first. That's part of the advice Michigan State University (MSU) professors Ted Ferris and Dan Grooms offer as they emphasize the importance of biosecurity in preventing disease.
Ferris, a professor in MSU's Department of Animal Science, and Grooms, an associate professor in the College of Veterinary Medicine Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, are working with a group of researchers to identify ways farmers can protect their farms — and animals — from the spread of infectious diseases. One of the biggest concerns for farmers is hosting a visitor who might be bringing with them disease pathogens that could potentially be transmitted to the farm animals, and eventually between animals, or bringing a new disease onto the farm through purchased stock.
Ferris and Grooms, in collaboration with their MSU colleagues and industry partners, have developed the "STOP Sign" campaign, a program meant to encourage dairy and beef farmers across Michigan to adopt and enforce biosecurity procedures for their traditional and nontraditional visitors, from the veterinarian or feed salesman to the city cousin and public official. Click here to read more.
Minnesota Works to Upgrade TB Status
Tips available for reducing disease transmission from wildlife.
Results from a recent review by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) have returned with overall positive indications for Minnesota’s bovine tuberculosis (TB) program. The Minnesota Board of Animal Health, with help from its partners, is working aggressively to again upgrade Minnesota’s bovine TB status levels.
Minnesota’s split-state status, awarded in October of 2008, has upgraded most of Minnesota to Modified Accredited Advanced, while a pocket in northwest Minnesota remains Modified Accredited. Testing requirements depend on the status level and on the classification of animal being shipped. Currently, Minnesota producers must follow state and federal regulations for interstate movement of cattle, goats, farmed cervidae and bison. For animals being shipped out of state, producers should contact their veterinarian or the receiving state’s animal health agency for movement regulations. Click here for more.
Rick Rasby
Ridin’ Herd
Did your nutrition program 'get 'er done?'
For spring-calving herds, calving season is starting to wind down. The greatest loss of potential calves to wean is due to cows not getting pregnant during the breeding season. Cows not getting pregnant during the breeding season, for spring-calving herds, is usually a result of cows being in poor body condition as a result of the nutrient management program. Click here for more.
Making BRD a Cattle Industry Concern
A multidisciplinary team of OSU scientists and practitioners is riding herd on one of the most challenging concerns of Oklahoma's $4.6 billion cattle industry — BRD.
Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the most common disease among feedlot cattle in the United States, accounting for approximately 75% of feedlot morbidity and 50%-70% of all feedlot deaths. BRD causes between $800 million and $900 million annually in economic losses from death, reduced feed efficiency and antimicrobial treatment costs.
"Immune response and morbidity issues relative to cattle growth and carcass quality affect every level of the beef industry, from the producer to the packer, all the way to the consumer as end user," said lead investigator Clint Krehbiel, holder of the Oklahoma State University (OSU) Dennis and Marta White Endowed Chair in Animal Science.
A relatively recent development of research conducted by Krehbiel and his collaborators shows cattle that have three or more bouts of disease produce lower-quality meat. Click here to read more.
Are Your Vaccines and Health Products Working?
Everyday practices can undermine your animal health efforts.
The failure of animal health products and vaccines often are the result of human error and not the result of a defective product.
Have you ever stored product in an old refrigerator out in the shed, used expired product or vaccinated cattle into the middle of the day when vaccine was exposed to sunlight and warm temperatures? These practices are among a list of those that could result in reducing the effectiveness of your vaccine products. For the health products to be successful, proper handling and storage is critical. Click here for more.
Assessing Antibiotic Breakdown in Manure
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientist Scott Yates is studying how oxytetracycline (OTC), an antibiotic that is administered to animals, breaks down in cattle manure.
Livestock producers in the United States often use antibiotics to control disease in their animals, and confined U.S. livestock and poultry generate about 63.8 million tons of manure every year. The drugs are often only partially absorbed by the digestive tract, and the rest are excreted with their pharmaceutical activity intact.
Yates, who works at the ARS Contaminant Fate and Transport Research Unit in Riverside, Calif., found that in controlled laboratory conditions, OTC in cattle manure was degraded more quickly as temperatures increased and as the moisture content in the manure increased. But the OTC breakdown slowed as water saturation levels neared 100 percent. Yates concluded that this slowdown resulted when oxygen levels were not high enough to fuel the OTC biodegradation.
Yates also noted that OTC breaks down more quickly in manure than in soil. Compared to soil, manure has higher levels of organic material and moisture, which support the microorganisms that break down this pharmaceutical.
This laboratory research may be useful in designing studies that evaluate the potential effects of lagoons, holding ponds and manure pits on bacteria and antimicrobial resistance.
Livestock producers also might use the results from this study to maximize the breakdown of organic materials and potential antibiotics in manure by designing storage environments with optimum temperatures and moisture levels.
Results from this study were published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry.
A New Prion
Scientists find new form of prion disease that damages brain arteries, may offer clues for treating Alzheimer's disease.
National Institutes of Health (NIH) scientists investigating how prion diseases destroy the brain have observed a new form of the disease in mice that does not cause the sponge-like brain deterioration typically seen in prion diseases. Instead, it resembles a form of human Alzheimer's disease, cerebral amyloid angiopathy, that damages brain arteries. Click here for more.
Cattle Diseases: Common Conditions/Terms
Click here for a list of common conditions and terms related to beef cattle diseases, such as anaplasmosis, brucellosis, BVD, E. coli, IBR and others.
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