Cattle

CattleReview: March–April 2022

A paper by More et al (2022) (Irish Veterinary Journal https://doi.org/10.1186/s13620-022-00209-6) focuses on the new EU Veterinary Medicines Regulation (2019/6), which has not been implemented in the...

Figure 1. Improving foot health includes having a thorough understanding of environmental and management factors. The Healthy Feet Programme gives structure for veterinary surgeons intending to make environmental assessments for cows in all systems, whether housed, as here, or grazing, or mixed.

Developments in managing dairy cow foot health

While lameness has been named as the number one issue by the UK's Ruminant Health and Welfare Group, there are other stake-holder groups that also have an important influence. One conse-quence of...

Figure 1. The primary objective of feeding suckler cows is to produce one viable calf per cow per year.

Feeding the pregnant beef cow

As detailed in Tables 2 and 3, example rations can be constructed for suckler beef cows depending on stage of production and estimated requirements. AHDB Beef has an excellent ration calculator that...

Figure 3. Graphic illustrating the progress measurement and drivers for Johne's disease within quarterly milk tested herds.

The National Johne's Management Plan: using risk and data analysis to optimise Johne's control in dairy herds

Since the advent of the NJMP programme in 2009, Johne's knowledge has increased. There is now a greater emphasis placed on dam associative risks (Whittington and Windsor, 2009; Patterson, 2020;...

CattleReview: January–February 2022

The bovine respiratory microbiome is strongly associated with health and disease and may provide insights for alternative therapy when treating bovine respiratory disease (BRD). The niche-specific...

On-farm culture and pathogen identification: risks and benefits

When using OFC it is important that mastitis caused by Gram-positive pathogens is not missed, as these infections are likely to benefit from treatment. Table 1 shows reported sensitivity, specificity...

Abomasal ulcers in cattle

Many possible causes of abomasal ulcers have been suggested and investigated but the aetiology of them is still not definitively known. It is commonly accepted that a disruption in the balance between...

Figure 1. When planning to control bovine tuberculosis and paratuberculosis it is important to detect infected animals, rather than just diseased animals, and manage both appropriately.

Control of bovine tuberculosis and Johne's disease in cattle

Does OTF status mean that a herd is actually free of endemic M. bovis infection or is the skin test failing to identify infected animals, particularly in herds that have recently regained OTF status?...

CattleReview: November–December 2021

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be a leading cause of economic loss, hampered animal welfare and antimicrobial use in cattle operations, worldwide. To improve disease control and...

Figure 4. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs are not licensed in calves under a week old, but may be used cautiously.

Youngstock health: a focus on Mycoplasma bovis, nematode control and the use of NSAIDS in scour

The importance of Mycoplasma bovis in causing and contributing to respiratory disease in cattle has been highlighted over recent years, however, it still remains a significant challenge to UK farmers....

TB control in the UK and New Zealand

TB control is in the news because of Geronimo the alpaca. There are so many angles to this story. These include social ones, such as whether it is right to cull an animal without clinical disease...

Figure 1. The core of bovine viral diarrhoea elimination programmes is identification and removal of cattle born persistently infected with the bovine viral diarrhoea virus.

Is the end in sight for bovine viral diarrhoea virus, or is it just a mirage?

The global pandemic of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that is the cause of the serious life-threatening disease known as COVID-19, has focused attention on the control of infectious diseases in people and in...