Economic losses due to decreased milk production, mortality and early removal from the herd were estimated at US$950 per clinically affected cow for a total cost of approximately US$737,500 for just the one herd the team studied. This did not include any ongoing herd dynamics or reproductive losses for this herd.

In the paper, titled “The impact of influenza A H5N1 virus infection in dairy cows,” published in Nature Communications, the researchers said they found cows clinically infected with HPAI presented a significantly increased risk of death and of premature removal from a herd of 3,876 adult cows in Ohio.

The most remarkable finding was the long duration of diminished milk production in clinically affected cows, said co-author Diego Diel, professor of virology and director of the Virology Laboratory at the Animal Health Diagnostic Center.

He says pasteurization efficiently inactivates the virus, rendering the milk safe for human consumption, but that a diminution in milk production presents an enormous financial burden to the producers of affected farms, and if added up to all affected farms, it is causing major economic losses to the United States’ 9.3 million-cow dairy industry.

“This represents a shock to production costs if you are affected by an outbreak,” said Matthew MacLachlan, co-author and assistant professor. “For a clinically diagnosed cow, we found an average of $950 in costs, which includes the milk you expect to lose over 60 days and the possible cost of removing them from dairy production. Even if they recover, that’s going to cost a dairy farmer $367 on average in milk losses.”

“One key strategy is implementing biosecurity measures to minimize these outbreaks, and the next step is developing vaccines,” said Felipe Peña Mosca, who was first author on the paper.

It’s a thorny problem, Diel said, because ordinarily mastitis is prevented through increased disinfection. In this particular case, those practices used for disinfection — pre-milking teat cleaning with a germicidal solution that is then toweled off — could be introducing the virus to the next cow. Study results suggest an association between cumulative exposure to the milking process and the risk of clinical disease, meaning the introduction of the virus could be during the milking process itself.

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But healthy udders not only ensure proper milk production, they affect kid performance in meat goats, said Dr. Rosie Busch from the UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Why it matters: Attention to udder health and milking conditions are critical in assessing and treating diseases, some of which impact kid and overall herd health.

“You want to ensure that every goat has an examination of the actual gland and the teats,” Busch said.

“I think it’s a great practice to palpate udders. It’s really important (that meat producers) know what a normal udder should feel like – an udder that’s in lactation and an udder that’s dry.”

Pre-breeding and pregnancy ultrasounds are ideal opportunities for udder palpitation, suggested Busch. Producers should pay particular attention to kids that fail to thrive and check does for milk production.

“If you have a problem with the survivability of kids at kidding, mark those does,” she said, adding that lagging kids from does raising multiples are often not thoroughly investigated.

“Once (producers) start identifying those animals, they are repeat offenders.”

Busch said milk component analysis provides insight into nutrition, disease control and overall composition. For example, mastitis can decrease casein, calcium, lactose and fat while increasing albumin, sodium and chloride, immunoglobulins and lactoferrin. Other diseases also change milk composition.

Goat teats use physical barriers, like a keratin plug, sphincter closure and naturally occurring antimicrobial and linoleic acids to protect against infection.

Dairy clipping, clean bedding and debris removal from udders and legs before milking is advised, but Busch warned that water is the nemesis of disinfection protocols for teats and milking equipment.

“Water provides a basis for bacteria to penetrate the end of the teat. It can bring soil and manure down from the top of the udder to the end of the teat,” she explained. “And if we’re using a lot of water in our prep process, it can be where contamination occurs.”

Regarding mastitis, on-farm milk cultures can help identify the type, but freezing a pre-treatment sample for culturing and possible diagnostic lab work is ideal.

Subclinical versus clinical mastitis

Altered gait can indicate mastitis, as can the sloughing of skin or teat lesions.

Clinical mastitis cases present with a hot, painful and potentially swollen mammary gland with apparent lymph nodes between the legs, abnormal secretions, and sometimes no milk at all, said Busch.

Staph aureus, a contagious and untreatable bacterium, commonly causes blue bag or gangrenous mastitis.

“Typically, when we find it, it’s this catastrophic death loss. It looks really terrible. It can cause multiple organ failure,” she said. “Milking equipment management is critical to help reduce the spread of this disease.”

Producers should separate infected animals and provide two milk streams, with infected animals milked last using gloves on thoroughly dry teats.

Busch said in acutely affected cases, systemic treatment may save the doe’s life, but its udder won’t recover. Subclinical signs, like a small udder abscess, often provide undetected entrance into a herd, but stress can trigger shedding into the milk.

“There is a vaccine in Canada,” she said. “Ideally, if you’re using it for Staph aureus control, it’s best to start vaccinating as doe-lings before they’re freshened.”

Coliforms are gram-negative bacteria, similar to E. coli, which can cause clinical mastitis and occasionally gangrenous mastitis. General udder hygiene, particularly during milking or milk handling, is critical to limit infections, as is provision of a dry place for goats to lie.

Busch said the J5 vaccine for gram-negative mastitis can lower coliform counts, but it depends whether contamination is in the udder or occurred during milking.

“With agalactia, you can have blind or non-functioning glands and then a hungry neonate,” Busch said. “For those raising meat goats, it’s usually the first thing you notice. Their kids are either starving or dying.”

Snatch-rearing kids before nursing could minimize contagious disease spread, as will frequent replacement of tubing and feeding implements.

Elevated bulk tank somatic cell counts and reduced milk yield, curd, and longer clotting times indicate sub-clinical mastitis.

“Over time, those glands can become scarred or fibrotic because they’re constantly battling infections,” Busch said. “And (the animal gets) a hard gland after they’ve had (untreated) infections.”

Coagulase negative Staph is a gram-positive bacteria that causes high somatic cell counts, she said, and it is present in 85 per cent of milk tested for mastitis. A study she’s working on with Iowa State shows 40 per cent of apparently healthy does have the bacteria.

“That’s a lot. If untreated, it’ll go on to cause fibrosis.”

It’s thought to respond to early treatment, but Busch said further research and data are needed to discern whether animals are susceptible to recurrence of the same infection or to new ones.

“Mastitis control and disease control, in general, comes back to reproductive management. So, if we have everyone freshening simultaneously, it becomes a little bit more challenging to manage and monitor these high-producing does all at one time.”

Busch said an annual milking cycle could identify and control disease and manage market and facility capacity. Some producers incorporate extended lactation over 365 days as an additional control tool.

“If we only have to kid out a third of the does each year, that can be helpful for disease control, but you definitely want to be strategic about it and make sure you have planned breeding times for that extended lactation.”

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The Manitoba dairy farmer was drawn to the comfort it provided to cows. The steady supply of high quality fertilizer was a bonus, while cost-wise, the system had a compelling argument.

“In comparison to a straw bedding pack, the compost pack is, in our opinion, way more cost efficient,” he said.

Clanman Jerseys built its new barn in 2017 with the intention of bedding the lactating cattle on compost.

Why it matters: Compost bedding is one tool in the Smith family’s soil-health focused, input-reduced management style.

The Smiths’ compost bedding pack barn near Clanwilliam is a rarity for Manitoba, and only possible through its location in the more heavily treed areas of Westman and Riding Mountain National Park.

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Wood shavings, which form the basis of the pack, are difficult to source in most of the province, Smith noted, and his family also struggled to make the practice functional before finding a local supplier.

Their system starts with a layer of shavings about six inches deep. Winter bedding adds seven bucket loads of shavings to the mix every second day, decreasing to a weekly addition of five bucket loads in the summer months.

“As the manure and urine is deposited in it, we then cultivate that to bare the manure and urine and mix it in and create a compost,” Smith said.

Cows bed down on the percolating compost pack. The mixture gets a cultivator pass twice a day to introduce oxygen and mix any new manure and urine. The built-up compost is removed seasonally, placed in windrows and turned throughout the winter.

Come spring, the Smiths have a product to sell.

The farm has marketed compost in bulk to gardeners and landscapers for the last three years. In 2020 and 2021, Clanman Jerseys also turned its compost into a fundraiser for the local 4-H club.

Sales were down this spring due to wet conditions, Smith said.

“By the time everyone could get into their gardens, they couldn’t put compost in, but other years we were over $7,000 in sales,” he said. “It’s not huge, but it’s nice – a little bit extra.”

[VIDEO] Compost cow bedding isn’t the only new idea for Clanman Jerseys. The dairy producer has also added a robo milker to its operation that allows cows to milk themselves. Watch below:

The compost, plus manure deposited during grazing, is the only fertilizer the farm uses. The Smiths keep enough compost to cover about 40 acres, with fields rotating to get a shot of that nutrient about every seven years, Smith said.

“Mostly, we manage our nutrients through diversity and rotating our crops and our grazing.”

As a proponent of regenerative agriculture, the farm manages its dry herd and young stock entirely on pasture. Non-lactating animals are rotated through the total graze system for five to six months of the year and fed on pasture for the remaining time.

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Herds on perennial pastures are moved every two days, with each paddock grazed once a year, before moving to graze annual regrowth in the fall after polycrops have been harvested for the lactating cow ration. Multi-species mixes of legumes and grasses dominate the farm’s perennial hay lands, while annual silage is planted with a mix of up to 12 species.

Elimination of synthetic fertilizer costs has been among the biggest boons to the farm’s ledger, Smith said, along with lower costs for winter feed due to the extended grazing season.

The cost of wood shavings for the compost is about $1,600 per truckload and the farm use about one truckload each month during winter, Smith said.

Today, the farm milks 60 purebred Jerseys though its compost bedding pack barn. A single-animal robotic milker stands sentinel between the barn and free pasture access, and cattle must run through the robot’s seven-minute milking cycle to get outside.

“It’s a way that we can still graze our cows and have the robot milking system,” Smith said. “When we first started, we weren’t forcing them through the robot and they were just spending too much time outside. We weren’t getting enough milkings in a day. This way, we’re allowing them to be outside when they want to be, they just have to go through the robot first.”

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At two daily milkings per cow, the farm averages about 23 litres per cow per day in the summer and about 4.8 per cent butterfat.

Digging in

There is little locally available advice on compost bedding. Factsheets published by Ontario’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs (OMAFRA) note cow comfort is a factor in compost bedding pack barns. Cows can choose their lying position, the ministry notes.

Some farms consider free-stall housing a more expensive option compared to compost bedding, OMAFRA says, while the practice easily converts to a three-row free-stall barn.

However, the ministry warns producers to watch for udder health problems. The layout also requires nine and a half square metres of bedding space per cow, although OMAFRA puts total per cow barn space at 14 square metres.

Producers might also expect the pack to differ from normal compost conditions. A 2007 study comparing traits from eight compost pack barns found that, while pH from the barns’ compost averaged 7.5 (well within the normal range of 6.5 to eight), compost from pack barns had slightly higher moisture (63 per cent of wet basis compared to the ideal 50-60 per cent) and lower temperature (42.5 C compared to the 54-60 C normally suggested).

“The data collected, compared to the preferred conditions for proper composting, suggested that the pack material was not composting in the traditional sense,” the OMAFRA document reads.

“Even so, the researchers concluded that the heat and biological activity of the pack were sufficient to control environmental mastitis organisms and fly larvae.”

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Occasionally chronic infected quarters (probably emanating from the year previous) are highly visible as large swollen quarters compared to the other three. They will often flare up a few weeks before calving as the colostrum is being formed.

Usually the cow is not sick but even if it is, I will go over treatment and the potential to dry up that quarter. The cow, depending on how she does together with teat conformation, may or may not be culled then or at weaning time. You have options.

My experience tells me that the majority of mastitis occurs in older cows with larger, poor conformation teats and those in which calves have a hard time milking out all the time. The larger producers may even leak milk when nursing and, again, this leads to mastitis problems.

Producers who pay attention to teat and udder conformation rarely encounter a cow with mastitis. We see a much higher incidence on the trader-type cows that go through the auction markets in open cow sales. One large teat indicates there has been milk retention the previous calving season and these cows have a good possibility of having problems in subsequent years.

Producers may calve these cows out with the goal of stealing their calf and grafting it onto a cow that has lost her calf. Just to be sure I like to strip these big-teated cows out to make sure the test canal is patent and that there is no mastitic milk present.

You will find blind teats which will eventually dry up and shrivel up — which is not a bad thing. It has been found that three-teated cows have some compensatory increase in production, so they may not produce that much less milk than a four-teated one. So there might not be a reason to cull unless the other teat conformation is bad.

The Angus association has a teat and udder scoring system which everyone should look at when selecting bred cattle. I say bred as yearling heifers become very difficult to select this way, but those with obviously too large a teat size may be removed.

I would hazard a guess many other criteria are looked at first during yearling heifer selection. Cows with good udders on average should raise heifers with good udders so look at the mothers.

If I find a chronic mastitis, I do what I would do with dairy cattle and treat the cow with recommended antimicrobials and NSAIDs. A one-time treatment dry cow intramammary preparation is often recommended. Check with your veterinarian to see what their exact recommendations are.

In severe cases, I have seen the entire quarter slough off but the cow go on to do OK and be salvageable. Ideally, we don’t want the infected milk leaking and contaminating the area. These may take a long time to heal over and it is best that the cow is treated, dried up and shipped when drug withdrawals are met.

If a cow is producing well, you may want to try and chemically dry up the infected quarter. This is difficult as the other three quarters are trying to produce milk. If you don’t notice the badly infected quarter until fall when weaning, that is an ideal time as the cow is naturally drying off.

The goal is simply to essentially create a chemical mastitis in the infected quarter. You need to strip out the infected milk as much as possible and then infuse the recommended solution (common products are a copper sulphate or silver nitrate solution) into the udder and leave it there. This is often stripped out again in seven to 10 days and the procedure repeated.

The end result next calving would be a fully functional three-teated cow. But I would only recommend this for valuable breeding stock on a high-end cow in the herd. Keep in mind treatments will have various slaughter withdrawals, and the concentration and volumes used of the chemicals will vary between veterinarians so closely follow their recommendations. The udder will swell and get sore on that quarter as you are causing the chemical mastitis.

I have done fewer and fewer of these treatments as producers have selected better and purebred breeders of all the breeds have paid close attention to teat and udder conformation.

However, it happens from time to time and at least you may have a game plan if it happens in your herd. Many early cases of this can be detected if stripping out the teats at calving or if you notice a swollen quarter in the herd at any time.

Happy calving 2020 everyone.

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The two agencies on Thursday announced “simultaneous” approvals for Elanco Animal Health’s injectable drug pegbovigrastim, to be sold under the brand name Imrestor.

The drug is approved for reducing incidence of clinical mastitis in the first 30 days of lactation in dairy cows and replacement dairy heifers at the periparturient stage — that is, the time frame just before, during and just after calving.

Elanco, in a separate release last week, billed Imrestor as a protein that helps “support the natural function of a dairy cow’s immune system during the critical time around calving, when she is most vulnerable to mastitis.”

Around calving, the company said, dairy cows show suppressed levels of neutrophils, the white blood cells that recognize and destroy harmful bacteria. Imrestor, Elanco said, “helps restore the function and increase the number of neutrophils at calving.”

Given that mastitis is the most common illness treated with antimicrobials in dairy cows, the company said, the new drug lines up well with the company’s antibiotic stewardship plan, which is meant to promote responsible use of antibiotics, reduce shared-class antibiotic use and replace antibiotics with alternatives.

Clinical mastitis — which Elanco said is known to affect up to one in four cows — is an inflammation in a cow’s mammary gland and udder tissue, caused by staph, strep and E. coli bacteria, among others.

The infection can reduce milk yield, damage udder tissues and reduce calf conception rates, create severe pain for the infected animal and leave it open to increased risk for future mastitis infections.

Elanco said last week its efficacy studies for regulatory approval showed a 28 per cent reduction in clinical mastitis incidence among cows and heifers that received Imrestor, compared with animals in its control groups.

“This drug’s approval will provide Canadian dairy farmers with access to an innovative product to treat a common but serious condition, and likely lead to fewer animals needing treatment from antimicrobial drugs,” Canada’s Health Minister Jane Philpott said in an agency release Thursday.

“Thanks to our government’s collaboration with our American counterparts, the approval was able to be expedited and will help to improve the health and well-being of Canadian cattle.”

Imrestor’s approval is the first for a use in food-producing animals under the Canadian/U.S. Regulatory Co-operation Council (RCC), and the fourth drug overall to get approval through the RCC process, Health Canada said.

The RCC is a Canada/U.S. pact to improve “regulatory transparency and co-ordination” between the two countries. — AGCanada.com Network

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There are many causes of toxic damage to the kidneys but this article will focus on the infectious causes of kidney disease resulting in what veterinarians call pyelonephritis (pus and infection in the kidneys). The infection results from common bacteria which gain access to the kidneys from the bloodstream. Kidneys are essentially blood filters. The other area of access is up the urinary tract and urinary retention from partial blockage will encourage growth of bacteria and infection.

Kidney infections are generally individual animal problems and cows may have the history of a prior infection from a retained placenta, mastitis, pneumonia etc. These infections suppress the immune function and allow the seed of bacteria to gain access to the kidneys.

In cattle one of the first clinical signs is weight loss. I see more of these cases in late pregnancy or right after calving. The pregnant cow must essentially filter both hers and the fetus’s blood. This taxes the filtering ability of kidneys, which is why this is the most common time to acquire kidney infection. Cows carrying twins have this problem compounded.

Any time there is extreme weight loss for no apparent reason have the cow checked by your veterinarian. They can palpate the left kidney and the ureters (tubes going from the kidneys to the bladder). A urine sample can be obtained and checked for blood, bacteria, pus cells and other parameters necessary to rule in or out kidney infection. Blood samples can be taken and the white blood cell count may be up. Other parameters such as blood urea nitrogen (BUN) only go up once the kidneys have been severely damaged and by then the prognosis is very poor.

My experience has been if cattle are still eating and drinking well and kidney disease has been diagnosed prognosis with treatment is very favourable. If appetite has been suppressed the BUN is too high and often in spite of vigorous treatment like intravenous fluids prognosis is very poor.

Fairly common

There are many more cases of kidney infection out there than we realize. This has been made evident to me by the large number I have seen when autopsying cows under the BSE testing program. Both kidneys will be severely infected and have very little normal function left. The common history is the farmer noticed weight loss but no other symptom and then the cow quit eating and died shortly thereafter.

Most of these cows can be saved and go on to lead productive lives or at least be taken to slaughter the following year if caught early enough. I am sure a number of these cows died on producers’ farms with no diagnosis prior to the BSE testing.

Producers may notice increased frequency of urination or pain at urination. Look closely at the urine especially at the end of the urination process for signs of pus or blood (red coloured). This will provide a clue kidney infection may be advancing. In cattle there are also many causes of red urine from bacillary hemoglobinuria (redwater), phosphorus deficiency to a red dye excreted when on clover. All these and many other causes of red urine can sometimes make the specific diagnosis more difficult.

Treatment

The most common bacteria causing kidney infection in cattle is very responsive to penicillin. There are two keys in treatment. First, the earlier the better before more permanent kidney damage is done. Secondly, the length of treatment must be adequate to completely clear the infection to avoid a relapse. Treatment periods for at least seven to 10 days or longer in my experience most often will avoid the relapses. This most definitely will entail treating daily with procaine penicillin for the first few days till noticeable improvement. Then several long-acting shots the required days apart will stretch treatment out to the two weeks.

A common mistake is stopping treatment too early when attitude improves and the urine clears. This is a smouldering infection and will come back if not completely cleared. As with any relapse the second-time treatment is much more difficult as the infection becomes deep seated.

If the cattle remain thin long after treatment there has probably been permanent damage to the kidneys. These cattle are like time bombs and with impaired kidney function are unlikely to reproduce and could eventually succumb to kidney failure. They might be best being culled before the condition worsens.

Kidney infections are sporadic across the Prairies. Every herd experiences them from time to time but with careful observation (always keep an eye on body condition score), early intervention and correct treatment the results are often gratifying. Penicillin is still a very effective drug as it is concentrated and excreted through the kidneys and subsequently the urine. Have your herd veterinarian examine your cows with weight loss and advise as to their course of treatment. Let’s recognize and treat more of these conditions as treatment is not that expensive, often has a favourable outcome, and at today’s prices for cattle the economics are there.

The post Beef 911: Kidney disease in cattle more common than realized appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

With the help of your veterinarian, consider areas where the use of certain products seems excessive for the size of your operation. Perhaps changes to management, feeding or prevention such as vaccination will cut antibiotic use down. Cattle which are healthy, less stressed and have good nutrition have healthy immune systems and are less likely to get sick.

If we do need to treat, your veterinarian can give professional advice on the best product and dosage for the job. Drugs have all been formulated and the dosage tested for the optimal response. More is not better. This only increases the cost, withdrawal period and provides no better results. Stacking drugs only works if they operate synergistically with one another. Often they will work antagonistically, and you get less response than say if one antibiotic was used by itself.

Producers often feel the need to give antibiotics for injuries such as sprains or strains, but with many foot and leg injuries time to convalesce is what is most needed. Painkillers can be given if you or the veterinarian thinks they are necessary. If animals keep eating they keep healthy and are very able to heal. Depending on the extent of the injury, an experienced veterinarian will give you a prognosis and time given for convalescence. If painkillers remove pain, they may facilitate walking on an already-injured area and worsen the condition. Use any painkillers with caution. Without these products you truly can see if the condition is improving.

FOOT ROT OR NOT?

Very few foot rots are actually that. Lots are injuries such as cracks, arthritis or laminitis. Some of these need hoof care which is why preventive trimming, especially in herd bulls or cows with bad feet, eliminates a lot of treatments in the summer for lameness.

A product applied to the local area is better than systemic products. The two best examples are mastitis and pinkeye. If the cow is not sick, mastitis responds well to stripping and applying specific mastitis tubes up the infected quarters. This provides the maximum antibiotic where it is needed most. Pinkeye responds just as well to a low dose of penicillin injected into the conjunctiva around the eye, rather than systemic injections of tetracyclines. To inject around the eyes you need good restraint and the head immobilized with a halter. With practice, the level of antibiotic used is greatly decreased.

A common mistake with pinkeye is to treat long after the infection is healed. Once the eye stops running and you see the whiteness develop, the infection has been cleared. The white is the resulting scar and may take a long time to get smaller and some remain permanently so further treatment is not necessary.

One must recognize that some conditions such as lumpy jaw, navel infection, some injuries and abscesses may remain as a blemish for the life of the animal. No amount of antibiotic treatment will resolve the situation. For lumpy jaw, the object is to stop the infection and the large lump will remain. As long as the condition is not worsening, the infection has been stopped.

Abscesses, if large enough, need to be lanced as drugs won’t penetrate the capsule that surrounds them. Navel infections often have the scarred navel stump and may even have a slight permanent discharge. Scarred areas or areas where cartilage is present (such as the voicebox) have a poor blood supply so antibiotics can’t penetrate these areas very well, so it is often pointless to give them.

CHECK THE LABEL

Whenever possible, use antibiotics which have on their label the conditions you are going to treat. The manufacturers have tested them on these diseases and found them effective.

You may in some cases find the older family of drugs such as penicillins or tetracyclines equally effective as the newer potent and more expensive drugs. Save the big guns for the severe pneumonias and diarrheas where specific products are necessary.

Do all this under the direction of your veterinarian as he/she will know the best choice taking into account severity, type of organism and geographic location. They may even recommend a culture and sensitivity. This is where the organism is grown in a lab and the effectiveness of individual drugs are measured against it. You are then treating specifically with the product that “should” work the best. Remember antibiotics don’t work against viruses.

PREVENTION IS BETTER

Vaccination is the No. 1 factor in biosecurity. However, some producers get overzealous and vaccinate for diseases they are either unlikely to get, have no consequence, or for which the efficacy of the vaccine is poor. Veterinarians will select the right combination and price for your farm and will shy away from products they know are unnecessary or poor quality.

Anthrax puts fear in producers’ eyes but if you are a long ways from any infected herds it may not be prudent to vaccinate. This is for you and your veterinarian to work out.

If there is no chance of recovery, as with chronic arthritic infections, consider humane issues and have the animal put down and an autopsy performed if it can clarify things. For both chronic pneumonias and arthritis, producers would stop treatment earlier if they knew treatment was impossible.

By following some of these recommendations we will all cut down drug use and our herds will be just as healthy. We will save some money and time in the process plus it will be much easier to comply with Beef Quality Assurance principles.

Roy Lewis is a large-animal veterinarian practising at the

Westlock Veterinary Centre. His main interests are bovine

reproduction and herd health.

———

Drugshaveallbeen formulatedandthe dosagetestedforthe optimalresponse. Moreisnotbetter.

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Mastitis or inflammation of the mammary gland results in swelling in the infected quarter together with heat and soreness. Affected cows may have a guarded walk because of the pain. If a severe infection or when more than one quarter is involved the cow may be febrile and depressed. The quicker we initiate treatment the better. Stripping out the infected milk together with systemic antibiotics such as penicillin and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAIDs) as well as treatment with approved products up the udder is my preferred method. This has the greatest chance of success.

If in stripping the quarter out you detect air, these are often the serious infections. The bacteria produce gas with toxins and can be life threatening. Unlike dairy cattle where we must consider milk withdrawal this is not an issue with beef cattle so using the dry cow treatments is an option. The dry cow therapies have a much longer effectiveness and for beef cattle which may be harder to treat pose a very viable option. Make sure and comply though with any slaughter withdrawals as dry cow infusions have slaughter withdrawals ranging from 30 days and higher. Follow your herd veterinarian’s recommendations.

It may be necessary to poultice the infection to the outside if a large abscess develops. In severe cases the infection will wall itself off and the whole quarter may slough off. The cow may totally recover and the problem is eliminated for next year.

Calves seem to avoid sucking the affected quarter(s) so I personally don’t worry about them becoming sick from infected milk. Keep an eye on their flanks though to make sure they are getting enough. If the mastitis makes the cow physically sick, their milk production will drop dramatically and the calf may need to be supplemented. In severe cases the calf may need to be orphaned to another cow as the udder may dry up completely.

CHRONIC INFECTIONS

Many times mastitis in beef cows is not caught quickly enough or there is a smoldering infection which starts after weaning and becomes clinical when the cow calves the following year. These are chronic infections and the odds of clearing them up are very rare indeed. My advice here is either shipping the cow or you can attempt to dry up the infected quarter. It has been found that a three-teated cow will compensate for milk production and produce almost as much milk as if all four quarters were functional. Talk to your veterinarian what they would recommend as there are many concoctions which appear to work. Varying concentrations of silver nitrate, copper sulphate and other products have been tried so see which one has worked for your veterinarian.

The ideal time to do this is after weaning when the cow is naturally drying off. When a cow is producing milk it becomes difficult to dry one quarter off while expecting the others to keep producing. Once the quarter is chemically dried off it will scar down and should not produce milk again, thus eliminating the chance for reoccurrence.

In my exper ience two groups have a higher incidence in the beef herds. The younger, good-producing cows that have a tendency to leak milk at or around calving are one, and the old cows with the low-slung broken-down bags are the other group. Good selection for udder and teat conformation goes a long way to preventing mastitis problems further down the line.

Cows with larger, what I call “coke bottle teats” are not only a bother because the calves have difficulty sucking; they often are the quarters which develop the mastitis. Culling older cows that develop the poor teat and udder conformat ion (broken-down suspensory) will eliminate these problems before they develop. These cows become very evident at calving and become labour intensive getting the calf to nurse. A good option is orphaning their calf to another cow should the opportunity present itself.

Never ever cut the teat end off or lance into the udder to drain an abscess. The udder and teats have a very good blood supply and blood loss can be severe.

By proper selection of replacement stock and being vigilant and calving in a clean area mastitis can be kept to an absolute minimum on beef farms. If you do observe a case be aggressive with treatment on advice from your veterinarian.

———

roy lewis

dvm

———

Goodselectionforudderandteat conformationgoesalongwaytopreventing mastitisproblemsfurtherdowntheline.

The post Mastitis — Not Just A Problem With Dairy Cows appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

The maximum allowable somatic cell count (SCC) will be lowered to 399,000 from the current 499,000, effective Aug. 1, 2012.

The change shouldn’t affect most producers much, if at all. Manitoba’s current SCC average is 265,000, according to Dairy Farmers of Manitoba.

But some producers may have to pull up their socks because a few occasionally get penalized for exceeding SCC limits, said Brent Achtemichuk, DFM general manager.

“It’s very rare but it does happen,” Achtemichuk said.

SCC is an indicator of both milk quality and possible health problems in a dairy herd.

Somatic cells are leukocytes, or white blood cells, shed naturally in a cow’s milk. A cow’s immune system secretes white blood cells to stop bacteria from building up in her system.

SCC is measured by the number of cells per ml.

A low SCC generally indicates good cow health. A high SCC indicates the presence of infection, usually mastitis.

Achtemichuk said the new SCC limit results from a resolution at the 2010 Dairy Farmers of Canada policy conference to reduce the SCC regulated maximum level in all provinces to 399,000 by 2012.

Lowering the SCC maximum will have a positive impact on herd production and continue to ensure high-quality dairy products, DFM said.

The European Union, New Zealand and Australia already adhere to the 399,000 limit.

Manitoba usually does not have an SCC problem in winter because the cold weather keeps bacteria populations under control, said Rob Berry, a Manitoba Agriculture, Food and Rural Initiatives dairy specialist.

But SCC counts often rise in summer, partly because warm, wet bedding is an ideal medium for the bacteria that cause mastitis infections, Berry said.

At times, SCC counts can rise to 499,000 and above, depending on the producer, he said.

“There are some farmers who are above current penalty levels at certain times of the year,” said Berry.

“Some producers like to fly quite close to the line. Some producers like to stay comfortably under that penalty level.”

Producers’ milk bulk tanks are checked regularly for SCC levels. Achtemichuk said the first time a producer goes over 499,000, he is warned. The second time, he is penalized $3/ hl. Penalties for repeat offences continue to rise by $1/hl until the fifth infraction within a 12-month rolling period. At that point, the producer is penalized $7/hl and no milk is picked up until the SCC problem is under control.

For the 2012-13 dairy year, penalties will apply for violations above the 399,000 level. But for that year only, milk shutoff will not occur unless all five violations are above 499,000, the same as before, Achtemichuk said.

This is to give producers a one-year transition period to get used to the new standard, he said.

While mastitis, as evidenced by SCC levels, is not a chronic problem in most dairy herds, producers need to be constantly on their guard against it, said Berry.

“It potentially affects every farmer if they don’t put management strategies in place to deal with mastitis cows.”

Berry outlined several strategies for preventing mastitis. They include: maintaining good hygiene; keeping cows in a clean, dry environment; properly maintain milk equipment so it doesn’t transmit bacteria; properly managing dry cows; culling chronic cases. ron@fbcpublishing.com

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“It’sveryrarebut itdoeshappen.”

– BRENT ACHTEMICHUK, DFM

The post New SCC Standard Announced For Dairy Farmers appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.

In most herds, uterine infections are relatively rare, but a routine check for possible problems immediately after farrowing is still essential. In some herds, infections are more common and may lead to compromised sow health, which can impact piglet survival. Also, infections tend to persist, sometimes even after treatment, leading to reduced fertility after the sow is weaned and mated. Careful observation during and after farrowing, combined with effective treatment of affected sows, will ensure problems are minimized.

Although small amounts of afterbirth may be expelled during the farrowing process, the main body of the placenta is normally expelled one to three hours after the last piglet is born. The appearance of the tissues should be fresh, with no decomposition or significant smell. After farrowing it is normal to see some discharge from the vulva. In most sows, this will be clear or a little milky, but should not be copious. Some sows may have a persistent heavy discharge, although this may not necessarily indicate a problem.

Sows should be checked frequently after farrowing until the afterbirth is expelled. If it is retained for longer than normal it may show some signs of decomposition, including a darker colour compared to normal and some smell. A heavy white, yellow or bloody discharge which increases in severity indicates a uterine infection.

If either of these two signs are seen, the sow’s temperature should be checked. The normal body temperature is 39 C, but this increases by up to 1 C during farrowing. A temperature of more than 40 C usually indicates either an infection of the uterus (endometritis) or possibly an udder infection (mastitis).

TREATMENT

Uterine infections respond well to treatment with a broad-spectrum antibiotic, so this is usually the treatment of choice. If a sow is assisted during farrowing, the chances of getting an infection are increased, so routine treatment is advised. An alternative to antibiotic treatment, where the sow does not have an elevated temperature, is to flush the uterus and vagina with a saline solution. Endometritis may also be treated by giving prostaglandin by injection which helps the lining of the uterus to recover and reduces the likelihood of problems with a discharge at or post-service.

As with all potential disease situations, careful observation of the sow’s behaviour and appearance will assist in identifying a problem. After farrowing, the sow should be settled and contented, suckling normally and calling to her piglets to suckle by grunting quietly. She should be feeding and drinking normally and although she will not usually want to eat much feed, she should show some interest at feeding time. If she is not eating, drinking or suckling normally or if she looks “off colour” or is lethargic and reluctant to stand up, a problem may be indicated.

Uterine infections are often associated with udder infections, so a close eye should be kept on the appearance and feel of the udder just prior to farrowing and for the first 48 hours post-farrowing. To check for possible udder problems, each gland in the udder should be felt with the palm and fingers, squeezing firmly. The tissue should be firm but not hard. Signs of an abnormal udder include hardness, hotness to the touch and the sow responding as if she feels pain.

Edema, or fluid in the tissue, can be checked for by pushing a finger into the side of the gland and then releasing. If an imprint of the finger is left, this demonstrates edema. Redness or blotchy red and white tissue indicates the likelihood of mastitis. If there is any sign of infection the sow’s temperature should be checked and treatment given if it is higher than 40 C.

PERSISTENT PROBLEMS

Occasionally, persistent uterine and vaginal infections result in a discharge, not only after farrowing, but also after weaning. In this case, the incidence of returns to service is likely to be increased and farrowing rate reduced. I have seen situations where farrowing rate has been as low as 70 per cent due to this problem. Discharges are more common in older sows because the cervix is less able to keep out infection and heavy culling of older females may be part of the control strategy.

Treatment will depend on the severity of the problem, but will usually involve some routine medication. One approach is to medicate the lactation feed, so that the infection is stopped before weaning. Another is to give a course of a broad-spectrum antibiotic or a long-acting antibiotic after weaning so that any infection carr ied through from the lactation stage is controlled. In severe cases, periods of feed medication for all sows in gestation may be considered.

As with all disease situations, a veterinarian should be consulted because every farm is different and there are a host of environmental and management factors that influence both uterine and udder health.

The sow’s health around the time of farrowing has a large impact on piglet survival because a raised temperature will reduce appetite and milk production. As uterine and udder infections are so closely related, careful observation of the sow and litter will allow rapid recognition and treatment of any problems. Similarly, after weaning, a prompt response to any signs of uterine or vaginal infection will minimize any impact on sow fertility.

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BERNIE PEETPeet onPigs

The post Uterine Health Impacts Piglet Survival And Sow Fertility – for Aug. 26, 2010 appeared first on Manitoba Co-operator.