Herd Health

Garlic in the Water Trough? What New Research Means for Fly Control in Cattle

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 18:28:13 GMT

For decades, producers across the U.S. and Canada have used garlic-infused minerals or salt as a natural fly control strategy. The biological rationale is straightforward: sulfur-containing compounds from garlic are absorbed, circulated and released through the skin to repel flies.

But when tested under field conditions, the results have been inconsistent.

A two-year Canadian grazing study evaluating garlic-infused trace mineral salt illustrates that variability. In one group, cattle receiving garlic had 47% fewer flies and 41% fewer defensive behaviors compared to controls. In another group, however, no significant difference was observed, despite the same supplementation strategy.

The authors point to several possible drivers, including environmental conditions, genetic differences and variation in supplement intake.

Other controlled work in the U.S. has produced weaker signals. In a 14-week field study in Louisiana, cattle consuming garlic through mineral only achieved about a 25% reduction in horn fly numbers, a level described as not meaningful relative to expected control standards.

Taken together, the North American literature points to a consistent pattern: garlic shows biological potential, but results are not reliable enough to stand alone as a primary control tool.

Intake May Be The Limiting Factor

Both of these studies relied on free-choice mineral or salt delivery, where intake can vary widely between animals and across time. Even when average consumption appears adequate, dose per head per day is not controlled with free-choice delivery, making consistent exposure difficult to achieve.

In practice, this does more than reduce efficacy — it makes outcomes unpredictable at the herd level.

This shifts the conversation from “Does garlic work?” to a more practical question: Can it be delivered consistently enough to produce a repeatable effect?

Delivering Organosulfur Compounds Through Water

A 2026 Australian study published in Tropical Animal Health and Production evaluated that question under commercial conditions. Instead of relying on free-choice intake, researchers delivered garlic-derived organosulfur compounds through drinking water in a grazing beef herd.

This approach directly addresses one of the most consistent limitations identified in North American work: variable intake across animals.

The study followed 266 beef cows split into treatment and control groups with the same stocking density with no changes to routine management. Both groups received the same base ration over the 16-week experimental period, but the treatment group received the garlic-derived supplement through water.

With intake standardized at the herd level, a clearer signal emerged:

Treatment group: ~80% reduction in fly counts within two weeks
Control group: ~20% increase over the same period
By week four:
- Treated: ~110 flies/head
- Control: ~350 flies/head
Seasonal pressure increased fly numbers in both groups:
- Treated: ~550% increase from baseline
- Control: ~6,500% increase

Behavioral Response Aligns With Reduced Fly Pressure

Behavioral indicators followed the same pattern as fly counts. Defensive behaviors — including tail flicking, head tossing and stamping — increased in both groups as fly pressure rose. However, the increase was substantially lower in treated cattle (68%) compared to controls (186%), indicating reduced irritation under similar conditions.

These behavioral changes reflect more than visible discomfort; they are tied to grazing time, stress and overall performance.

Relevance to Fly Control in North American Systems

While the study focused on buffalo flies, the implications extend to horn flies, the primary ectoparasite in U.S. and Canadian grazing systems.

Both species:

Remain on the host for most of their life cycle
Feed frequently on blood
Trigger similar behavioral and production responses

The underlying mechanism — repellency via metabolized organosulfur compounds — is expected to translate across fly species.

Where This Fits in Practice

Water-based delivery of garlic-derived compounds may have a role as part of an integrated fly control strategy, particularly in:

Extensive grazing systems
Herds with inconsistent mineral intake
Operations where labor limits handling-based interventions

North American research has shown garlic-based fly control can produce reductions in some settings, but results have been inconsistent. Across studies, variation in intake has been a recurring limitation.

This new study suggests when intake is controlled through water, the same compounds may produce a more consistent response at the herd level. At the same time, the findings should be interpreted within the study’s constraints. The trial lacked replication, did not measure individual intake and did not assess compound stability in water.

This work emphasizes how a product is delivered can be just as important as what is delivered when it comes to real-world performance.

New Leadership to Take on Key Animal Health Roles at USDA

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 19:23:04 GMT

USDA announced major leadership changes within the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS). Michael Watson, APHIS administrator, will retire at the end of January after decades of distinguished service, and Rosemary Sifford, deputy administrator for veterinary services and U.S. chief veterinary officer, has also retired from federal service after a similarly notable career.

Dedicated Public Servants

Watson’s notable career reflects his unwavering commitment to safeguarding U.S. agriculture, building strong partnerships with states and stakeholders and mentoring future leaders. Beginning his USDA career in 1994 as a plant pathologist with the Agricultural Research Service, he later held key leadership roles across multiple APHIS programs. APHIS says Watson consistently championed science-based policy, ensuring APHIS decisions were grounded in rigorous data and research to protect U.S. agriculture and maintain public trust. His legacy is one of collaboration, integrity and dedication to public service.

Sifford began her USDA career in 1997 as a Saul T. Wilson Scholar and held numerous roles across APHIS. Under her leadership and guidance, APHIS advanced major animal health efforts, including combatting highly pathogenic avian influenza — with unprecedented detections in dairy cattle — and strengthening preparedness and response for New World screwworm. APHIS says her direction ensured these efforts were grounded in science-based policy, supported by field-ready guidance, and delivered with transparent stakeholder engagement. A steadfast champion of practical, proven biosecurity, she worked hard to protect animal health nationwide.

“Dr. Watson and Dr. Sifford are dedicated public servants and we greatly appreciate their time at USDA, serving American farmers and ranchers, and protecting the national security of the U.S. I am so grateful for their extended service to support the Trump administration during such a critical time for American agriculture,” says U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins in a news release. “The team at APHIS plays a critical role in protecting our food supply from foreign pests like the New World screwworm, as well as fighting diseases like bird flu. I have the utmost confidence in Ms. Moore, Dr. Huddleston and Dr. Dijab in continuing this critical mission and defending American agriculture.”

New Leadership

Starting Feb. 1, Kelly Moore will serve as acting administrator. Moore is currently acting chief operating officer for USDA’s marketing and regulatory programs mission area, and acting deputy administrator of marketing and regulatory programs business services.

“She brings extensive operational leadership experience and results-driven management, including a strong foundation of discipline from her prior service in the U.S. Marine Corps,” APHIS reports. “Ms. Moore is highly adept at guiding organizations through periods of change and transition and driving efficiency, compliance and innovation at scale — critical to APHIS’s mission during this pivotal time.”

Effective immediately, Dr. Alan Huddleston will serve as acting U.S. chief veterinary officer. With deep expertise in epidemiology and program development, he will represent U.S. animal health priorities internationally and maintain strong engagement with states and industry.

(USDA APHIS)

Dudley Hoskins, under secretary for marketing and regulatory programs, says their leadership and commitment to collaboration strengthened APHIS and the nation’s animal and plant health systems.

“These are consequential changes at a pivotal moment for the agency, and I am confident that Ms. Moore, Dr. Huddleston, and Dr. Dijab will not only serve as steady hands for program continuity but will lead APHIS into a new era,” Hoskins says.

To ensure continuity during this transition, APHIS veterinary services associate deputy administrator Adis Dijab will continue to provide operational oversight of veterinary services.

“APHIS operations continue uninterrupted, guided by science-based policies, strong stakeholder engagement and experienced acting leaders to ensure program continuity,” APHIS reports. “APHIS remains steadfast in its mission to protect the health, welfare and value of our Nation’s plants, animals, and natural resources — continuing to deliver solutions and essential services that safeguard U.S. agriculture and support stakeholders nationwide.”

Seeing the Whole Elephant: Systems Thinking and Animal Health

Mon, 24 Nov 2025 22:19:51 GMT

We all know the ancient parable of the blind men and the elephant: each man touches a different part of the elephant and becomes convinced he knows the whole animal. One feels the trunk and declares it a snake, another the leg and insists it’s a tree. Each observation is accurate, but each conclusion is deeply incomplete.

Veterinary medicine often falls into the same trap, not because of a lack of care but because of training to look closely. In a world where disease emerges from the interactions of nutrition, immunity, environment, behavior and management, the old parable reminds us the truth isn’t found in any single part. It’s found in the relationships between them.

Why Looking Closely Isn’t Enough

Pattern recognition is one of our greatest strengths. You learn to see classic presentations and link them with a diagnosis. For example, ketosis in a fresh cow or BRD in a calf with a cough.

But disease rarely lives in one organ system or one management practice. A narrow focus can deceive us. We might fixate on the ‘tusk’ because it looks sharp and obvious, while missing the constellation of forces actually driving the animal’s response.

Examples crop up everywhere:

A dairy lameness problem blamed solely on digital dermatitis, when the root cause is chronic wet bedding, poor ventilation and subtle changes in stocking density.
A calf barn respiratory outbreak attributed to infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, when the real sequence of events begins with colostrum quality, followed by fluctuating ventilation, then a weather front that pushes calves over the edge.
A feedlot dip in performance linked solely to a ration change, when heat stress, water access, bunk competition and handling stress created a cascade of interacting pressures.

Each diagnosis contains a piece of truth, but each is incomplete when treated in isolation.

Systems Thinking: Looking Between the Parts

Systems thinking is the discipline of understanding how elements interact to produce outcomes. It challenges us to stop asking what caused this and start asking how these factors combined to create this situation.

Dr. Brian Vander Ley of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln recently spoke on the topic.

“Systems thinking is actually a derivative of a field called ‘systems dynamics,’ which is a highly mathematical modeling field that’s used to predict the behavior of systems based on components in the system and relationships,” Vander Ley explains. However, systems thinking takes out the math component. “It’s a set of tools, processes and principles that enable us to focus on the relationship between parts of the system and not just some of the parts themselves.”

A system isn’t just a list of components. It is:

The feedback loops between nutrition and immunity
The way ventilation interacts with pathogen load
How handler behavior influences stress physiology
How management timing affects microbial dynamics
How one week’s decisions become the next month’s disease patterns

The iceberg analogy fits here too: What we see in the cow is only a small fraction of what’s really happening. The larger drivers of disease sit below the surface and remain invisible unless we deliberately go looking for them.

The heart of systems thinking is recognizing that diseases are rarely linear. They are networked. They emerge not from one factor but from several interacting simultaneously, sometimes amplifying, sometimes buffering each other.

In other words, the elephant is not just trunk + tusk + leg + ear. The elephant is the relationships that connect those parts into a living organism.

The Veterinarian as a Systems Navigator

Veterinarians already intuitively use systems thinking. You’re constantly piecing together physiology, environment and behavior. The challenge is doing it intentionally rather than incidentally.

This means asking broader questions:

Where did the system fail and why?
What feedback loops are reinforcing the problem?
Which variables are upstream versus downstream?
What invisible pressures are shaping what I can see?
What happens if one part of the system changes?

When we ask these questions, we stop thinking like the blind men — competing diagnoses based on isolated observations — and start thinking like systems analysts, integrating multiple perspectives into a coherent picture.

This is also dependent on communication within the animal care team.

“Communicating about it is really important, because we are really sure about our own experiences. When I go out and collect data with my own hands and my own eyes, I’m very confident in that data, and when I see information that’s very different, I tend to disregard that information,” Vander Ley says. “We want to engage in a kind of communication that allows us to appreciate that we’ve got different pieces of the elephant in hand.”

Having an open dialogue between owners, producers, veterinarians and academics allows for a broadened perspective for understanding what the problem is.

Case Example: Reframing a ‘Simple’ Mastitis Problem

Take a herd with climbing somatic cell count and increased clinical mastitis cases. A parts-focused approach might look at:

Teat-end condition
Milking protocols
Bedding
Culture results

A systems approach goes further:

How has cow flow changed through the parlor?
Are fresh cows being mixed too early?
Has ration moisture affected rumen health and lying time?
Are staff changes altering consistency in milking prep?
Has heat stress reduced rumination and immune resilience?
Are equipment cleaning routines changing due to workload?

Suddenly, the rising cell counts are no longer an udder health issue but a system problem — a signal, not a cause.

Stepping Back to See the Elephant

The parable of the blind men isn’t merely about limited perspectives; it’s about the illusion of certainty that comes from seeing only one piece of a larger, interconnected whole.

Veterinarians do some of their best work up close: palpating, listening to internal sounds, evaluating subtle signs. But the greatest diagnostic breakthroughs often come when we deliberately widen our view and consider not just the parts but the interplay between them.

Systems thinking doesn’t replace traditional diagnostic skills, it evaluates them. It turns isolated observations into meaningful patterns. It turns symptoms into stories. It turns disease into a map we can navigate instead of a puzzle we must solve.

In the end, seeing the ‘elephant’ means seeing not just the cow or the herd but the interconnected ecosystem that shapes every outcome.

Vesicular Stomatitis Outbreak in Arizona

Fri, 14 Nov 2025 16:34:09 GMT

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service has released a situation report on vesicular stomatitis virus (VSV) after the virus was identified on two Arizona farms this month.

While both reported cases were in horses, VSV also affects cattle, swine and other ruminants. The farms on which the virus was identified both also house cattle, though none have been found to be clinically affected.

In response to this outbreak, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has announced temporary import restrictions on horses, ruminants and swine from the U.S. until further notice. The import of horses, swine and ruminants from VSV-affected states for all purposes is prohibited. Animals from other states that have been in a VSV-affected state at any point in the three weeks prior to import will be denied entry to Canada. Special accommodations have been made in collaboration with USDA regarding animal import for major Canadian livestock competitions and exhibitions.

What is Vesicular Stomatitis?

Vesicular stomatitis (VS) is a viral disease primarily spread by biting midges and flies, but can also be spread via animal-to-animal contact or exposure to saliva or fluid from ruptured vesicles. It is also important to protect yourself if working with infected animals as it is transmissible to humans causing an acute influenza-like illness.

VS is named for its characteristic vesicular lesions that form around the mouth, nose, udders and hooves. Along with these lesions, clinical signs of VS include:

excessive salivation (often accompanied by raised blisters on the lips, gums and tongue)
fever
feed withdrawal leading to weight loss

In cattle and horses, lesions around the hooves can lead to lameness, while teat lesions in dairy cattle can lead to mastitis and a severe drop in milk production. Affected swine usually first show signs of lameness caused by foot lesions.

Controlling Vesicular Stomatitis

While VS does not usually cause the death of an animal, it can lead to economic losses due to prevented animal movement and impacts on international trace. Farms with VSV positive animals must quarantine for 14 days after lesions appear on the last case at the location.

The last VS outbreak occurred from May 2023 through January 2024 affecting 319 locations across California, Nevada and Texas. VSV circulates annually between livestock and insect vectors in southern Mexico, only entering the U.S. when environmental factors support the northern movement of vectors.

If you suspect an animal might be infected with VSV, you should immediately contact local state and federal animal health authorities.

5 Tips for Vaccine Handling

Fri, 07 Nov 2025 16:53:41 GMT

Vaccines are one of the most effective and economical tools available to maintain herd health, reduce disease loss and support animal well-being. However, even the best vaccine can fail if it’s not handled correctly. Dr. Jon Townsend, dairy technical services veterinarian with Merck Animal Health, recently touched on the topic during a Dairy Calf and Heifer Association webinar .

“You’ve made the investment in those vaccines. You want to get the best response out of them. You want to get the best cow health possible,” Townsend says.

Whether you’re working with calves, replacement heifers or mature cattle, following consistent vaccine handling practices ensures your investment delivers the intended immunity. Here are five key guidelines to keep in mind.

1. Store Vaccines at the Right Temperature

Vaccines are sensitive, biological products. Many must be kept refrigerated at a specific temperature range to remain effective.

Use a dedicated refrigerator (not the one used for drinks and lunches), as frequent door opening causes temperature swings.
Place a thermometer in the fridge to monitor temperature regularly.
Avoid storing vaccines in the refrigerator door where temperatures fluctuate the most.

2. Don’t Mix all your Vaccine at Once

Many livestock vaccines are sold as two-part products. Once mixed, the live organisms begin to break down.

“Only mix what you’ll use in the next one to two hours if you have to mix up a vaccine,” Townsend advises. “Your modified live vaccines you have to mix. So don’t mix a huge bottle that’s going to take the whole day to use. By the time you get to the last dose that vaccine has potentially degraded, and you won’t get the same response that you would have immediately after reconstitution.”

3. Keep Mixed Vaccines Cool and Out of Sunlight

Heat and sunlight can rapidly damage vaccines, particularly modified-live vaccines.

Keep syringes and mixed bottles in an insulated cooler with cold packs.
Do not place vaccine bottles on the chute, in your shirt pocket, or on a truck dashboard.
Check your cooler throughout the day to ensure cold packs are still cold and not melted.

Unsure about what cooler to use? Consider making it yourself.

“You can either buy a fancy one, or you can make one yourself with an Igloo cooler and drill some holes,” Townsend says. In the end, the goal is the same. “It’s really important to keep that vaccine cool. If you’re using a multi-dose syringe, make sure you’re keeping [it] cool between calves.”

4. Maintain Needle Cleanliness

Contamination can destroy vaccine potency and introduce infection to animals.

Use new clean needles when drawing vaccine from the bottle.
Do not set uncapped syringes or needles down on surfaces like tailgates or barn rails.
If a needle becomes dirty, bent or touches anything questionable, replace it.

“We need to be thinking about changing out needles more frequently than [we] did 30 years ago,” Townsend says. “Then disinfect the needle and syringes after use or dispose of them, and think about disinfecting multi-dose syringes.”

Townsend also highlights the importance of making sure there is no disinfectant residue remaining after cleaning as it has the potential to inactivate your vaccines. Producers and veterinarians should work together to set up protocols for syringe reuse.

5. Use Sharp, Appropriate Needles

A sharp needle ensures a clean injection and reduces animal discomfort.

Replace needles regularly and check for sharpness.
Choose needle size based on animal size, vaccine viscosity and route of administration:
- Subcutaneous: typically 16 to 18 gauge, ½" to ¾"
- Intramuscular: typically 16 to 20 gauge, 1" to 1½"

Townsend specifically warns about the development of burrs, small barbs or defects that can catch on skin, on your needles after too many uses.

“If you wouldn’t want it going into your arm for a vaccine, you shouldn’t be putting it into a cow or calf either,” he says.

Overall, the immunity an animal gains from vaccination is only as good as the care taken in handling the product. Proper storage, careful mixing, maintaining temperature and using clean, sharp needles are straightforward steps that protect your investment and your herd.

Veterinarian Becomes Disease Detective: Nichols Connects Animal Disease and Human Health

Tue, 07 Oct 2025 19:24:04 GMT

Growing up on a New Mexico ranch, veterinarian and public health leader Megin Nichols says she learned early the health of animals, humans and the environment are deeply connected.

Initially planning to practice small animal medicine, she says her plans began to pivot when she met a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) epidemic intelligence service officer who sparked her interest in public health. That realization led her to pursue a master’s degree in public health at the University of Minnesota, with a focus on food safety and biosecurity. Her career has included roles in local, state and federal health departments, investigating foodborne illness outbreaks and developing strategies to prevent them.

“Life has a way of taking you in places you never anticipated,” she shared during the 2025 Henry C. Gardiner Global Food Systems Lecture Oct. 6 at Kansas State University.

Today, as the CDC’s director in the division of foodborne, waterborne and environmental diseases, she lends her expertise to efforts involving disease investigation, food safety, antimicrobial resistance and agriculture literacy.

Megin Nichols has more than 15 years of zoonotic disease experience and has served at the federal and state levels. She has served as the lead of the Enteric Zoonoses Team investigating multistate outbreaks of Salmonella and E. coli. Prior to joining CDC, Nichols worked as the Principal Investigator of the Active Bacterial Core Surveillance Program at the New Mexico Department of Health for five years.

(Angie Stump Denton)

One Health: Connecting Animal Disease and Human Health

Nichols’ work focuses on the One Health concept.

“One Health is recognizing the health and well-being of humans, of animals and our environment are all interconnected,” she explains. “One Health is something that many of us do every single day and are very, very aware of, especially if you have ties to agriculture and the land. But One Health as a concept oftentimes is difficult to fully understand.”

Nichols says One Health is:

Ongoing relationships with animal agencies.
Understand the culture of agriculture.
Having access to integrated human and animal surveillance.
Protocols for conducting joint response investigations.
Agreements for sharing biological samples and lab results.
Established lines of communication with agriculture and animal industry.
Plans for unified communication messaging.
Need to build linkages and trust before and outbreak.

“What happens in one area can significantly impact others — whether it’s a wildfire, a disease outbreak or environmental changes,” Nichols summarizes.

Pandemic and Disease Response Insights

Nichols was a leader in investigating and finding unique solutions for the livestock industry and specifically meat packing industry related to COVID-19.

“In April 2020, I got a call from my supervisor saying there are some meat, poultry packing plants that are going down because of labor shortages and illness,” she explains.

She selected and lead a team to figure out how to get the plants opened back up safely and to find unique solution to deal with the related animal welfare issues.

Summarizing the experiences, Nichols reports the estimated economic cost of COVID-19 is $14 trillion. Along with supply chain disruptions the industry experienced changes in consumer behavior, labor shortage and complex operations challenges. On a positive note, she says the industry did experience a lot of innovation and uptake of technology due to the pandemic, which resulted in innovative approaches to workplace safety and communication.

“We saw innovative strategies where if one person got sick, they looked around that worker and said, ‘OK, who do we need to monitor quickly for symptoms?’” she says.

Nichols also discussed the increase in salmonella outbreaks during the pandemic. She links the rise to the increase in backyard poultry ownership and the improper handling of backyard chickens.

“Many new chicken owners were unaware of disease transmission risks,” she explains.

Nichols also shared insights to H5N1 influenza and emphasized the complexity of tracking and preventing. She highlights the need for integrated, cross-species surveillance and communication strategies.

She also touched on emerging threats, including New World screwworm (NWS) . Her message emphasized the importance of prevention, control and preparedness.

She shares these five key strategies related to NWS:

Surveillance. Early dection through wound inspections and reporting in livestock.
Sterile Insect Technique (SIT). Ongoing release of serile male flies to prevent reproduction.
Biosecurity. Movement control of imported animals and monitoring at entry points.
Public Awareness. Education for doctors, ranchers, veterinarians and travelers.
Rapid Response Planning. Multi-agency coordination to contain outbreaks swiftly and deploy sterile flies.

Agricultural Literacy, Communication is Key

“Growing up in the middle of nowhere, I also came to understand that not everyone appreciates — or even understands — where their food comes from,” Nichols says.

She shared a 1993 study that revealed significant gaps in public knowledge about agriculture. She summarizes understanding food systems involves knowing:

Where food comes from.
How it’s produced.
Its impact on economy, environment and technology.

Throughout her lecture she shared the importance of transforming complex scientific concepts into engaging, accessible insights that resonate with students, farmers, ranchers and public health professionals alike.

“It doesn’t matter how much information we have if we don’t get it out to the people,” Nichols says.

She stresses the importance of agricultural communication specialists in translating scientific information and engaging audiences.

“Don’t leave the communications to the scientists,” she says.

Nichols emphasizes that agricultural literacy and effective communication are crucial for bridging knowledge gaps and building public understanding of food systems.

She shares this advice for agricultural advocates:

Bring agricultural perspective to discussions by speaking up and sharing lived experiences.
Challenge misconceptions with personal stories by focusing on storytelling rather than technical details.
Understand your audience and use relatable language and provide context.

Nichols stresses the importance of preparedness and collaboration. She explains the importance of local-level discussions and community preparedness, suggesting that some of the most effective emergency preparedness conversations happen “at the coffee house” or during casual community gatherings.

Share Your Thoughts: APHIS To Host Animal Health Listening Sessions

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 11:45:06 GMT

POSTPONED: The Farm Bill Animal Health Program Listening Sessions that were scheduled for October 6, 7 and 8 have been postponed.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) is advancing animal disease preparedness and response through its Farm Bill animal health programs. Beginning in fiscal year 2026, funding for these programs will increase to $233 million annually under President Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill .

This includes:

$153 million per year for the National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank ( NAVVCB )
$70 million per year for the National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program ( NADPRP )
$10 million per year for the National Animal Health Laboratory Network ( NAHLN )

APHIS will host three virtual listening sessions to gather stakeholder input on how these new funds should be used to strengthen national, regional, and local capabilities to prevent, prepare for, and respond to animal disease outbreaks. APHIS will use the feedback to inform future program planning.

Each session will focus on one of the three programs. While advance registration is not required, we encourage participants to submit their name and affiliation to help us plan and facilitate the sessions.

Listening Session Schedule

Monday, Oct. 6 | 2 to 3 p.m. ET
Topic: National Animal Health Laboratory Network (NAHLN)
Join the Listening Session on Teams or
Call-In: 202-650-0123; Phone Conference ID: 697 205 668#
Tuesday, Oct. 7 | 2 to 3 p.m. ET
Topic: National Animal Vaccine and Veterinary Countermeasures Bank (NAVVCB)
Join the Listening Session on Teams or
Call-in: 202-650-0123; Phone Conference ID: 440 983 713#
Wednesday, Oct. 8 | 2 to 3 p.m. ET
Topic: National Animal Disease Preparedness and Response Program (NADPRP)
Join the Listening Session on Teams or
Call-In: 202-650-0123; Phone Conference ID: 188 744 006#

To ensure as many participants as possible can speak, we ask that speakers limit their comments to 90 seconds or less.

Stakeholders are also invited to submit written comments before or after the events using the Farm Bill Funding Stakeholder Feedback Form . Written comments will be accepted through Oct. 15, 2025.

This is a valuable opportunity for all interested stakeholders to help shape the future of these critical animal health programs.

Harness the Full Potential of Your BRD Vaccine with the Right Adjuvant

Mon, 29 Sep 2025 10:38:32 GMT

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the greatest threats to young calves, and gaining protection through vaccines isn’t always straightforward. Maternal antibodies, passed through colostrum, can block some vaccines from boosting immunity. The key to overcoming that hurdle? Choosing a vaccine with the right adjuvant.

Maternal Antibodies Can Interfere with Vaccines

“Years ago, vaccine response was so variable in young calves,” says Curt Vlietstra, DVM, Boehringer Ingelheim. “At the time, we didn’t know if their immune system simply wasn’t ready, or if there was a problem with the vaccines. With the research we have now, we understand that the majority of interference comes from maternal antibodies that are still present in the calf at the time of vaccination.”

Passed down from the cow via colostrum, maternal antibodies are not only a calf’s first line of defense against disease, but they also have the tendency to neutralize vaccines.

Those maternal antibodies naturally wane when the calf is between 2 and 6 months of age. As this maternal immunity dwindles, vaccination becomes critical in boosting and building calf immunity. The largest challenge in bridging these two forms of immunity is timing. Chris Chase, DVM, Professor, Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, South Dakota State University, says finding a vaccine with the right adjuvant can eliminate this guessing game.

Adjuvants Are Critical to Capturing Immunity in Young Calves

Adjuvants — although often overlooked — can determine whether a calf successfully develops a robust, lasting immune response, or remains vulnerable to BRD pressure. They work by drawing immune cells to the injection site, and helping the calf’s body recognize and remember the vaccine. Some adjuvants also slow the release of the vaccine, giving the immune system more time to respond.

“With the types of adjuvants we have now, we can get strong, long-lasting immune responses, even in calves with maternal antibodies,” Chase shares. “Although, just because a vaccine label says ‘adjuvanted’ doesn’t mean it offers the protection we need. It’s important that we ask what kind of adjuvant it is and what it’s proven to do.”

Over the last few decades, peer-reviewed studies and fieldwork have shown that Pyramid ^® vaccines can succeed, even in the face of maternal immunity, thanks to its unique adjuvant, Metasim^®. Specifically designed to address the challenges of early calfhood vaccination, the dual-phase technology of the Metasim adjuvant can stimulate a balanced, robust immune response in calves as young as 30 days of age.

(Boehringer Ingelheim)

“Historically, it was accepted as fact that maternal antibodies would block the injectable vaccine,” Vlietstra says. “Now we know Metasim works alongside the preexisting antibodies, not against them.”

Systemic Immunity Builds Long-Lasting Protection

Another key factor in vaccine selection is delivery method. For a time, intranasal vaccines were thought to be the only effective option to protect young calves against BRD. While intranasal vaccines can offer local immunity for calves at risk of BRD exposure soon after birth, some may miss the opportunity to stimulate robust, systemic immunity.

While local immunity helps block infection right where it starts (which is usually in the respiratory tract with BRD), systemic immunity is what builds broad, long-lasting protection, by training the calf’s entire immune system to respond.

When calves encounter BRD pathogens weeks or even months after vaccination, a strong systemic immune response helps them recognize and fight off infection more effectively, reducing severity of disease and its long-term impact on health and performance.

“In some ways, we’ve become very reliant on intranasals,” Vlietstra notes . “I’ve seen protocols that say, ‘This calf may not respond to an injectable, so let’s give another intranasal.’ That choice ends up potentially delaying systemic protection.”

Injectable vaccines with the right adjuvant have been proven to stimulate both local immunity in the respiratory tract, and systemic immunity that circulates in the bloodstream.

Even the Best Vaccine Needs Correct Timing and Care

“There are plenty of producers and veterinarians who have firsthand experience of vaccines not working,” Vlietstra says. “If we’re not seeing results, it’s time to evaluate how we’re using the product and when.”

It’s common to schedule vaccination alongside other times calves are being worked, like weaning or transportation. While this may save labor and time up front, vaccinating calves during other stressful events can limit immune response.

“If cattle have had a long truck ride, ideally, we’d let them unload and rest for 24 to 48 hours before we vaccinate,” Chase explains. “I know not all operations have the resources to do this due to labor constraints, but water and rest time after a stressful event will set cattle up for a better immune response.”

To get the most of any vaccination program, good animal handling, husbandry and biosecurity protocols play a role in preventing and controlling BRD. By staying on top of health management and using products according to label, vaccines are more likely to capture desired results.

“The world’s best vaccine is not going to overcome overwhelming challenges,” Chase stresses.

The needs of every herd are different. Working closely with a veterinarian is key to finding success tailored to your cattle and operation.

U.S.-Mexico Border Battle Continues As the Threat of New World Screwworm Intensifies

Wed, 24 Sep 2025 20:02:36 GMT

With New World screwworm (NWS) confirmed just 70 miles from the U.S. border , producers, government officials and industry leaders are taking action. Finding NWS along one of the most heavily trafficked commercial thoroughfares in the world from Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, to Laredo, Texas, is a red flag for the industry. Emphasizing the importance of maintaining strong safeguards, it’s time to plan for not “if but when” NWS crosses the border.

On Monday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins confirmed protecting the U.S. from NWS is non-negotiable and a top priority for President Trump.

UPDATE ON SCREWWORM THREAT:

Protecting the United States from New World Screwworm is non-negotiable and a top priority for @POTUS.@USDA landed boots on the ground this morning in Nuevo Leon, physically inspecting traps and dispersing sterile flies after the detection of the…
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) September 23, 2025

“The southern border remains closed to livestock trade, and we are aggressively expanding trapping and surveillance,” she wrote. “At the same time, we’re expediting operations at our sterile fly dispersal facility at Moore Air Base in Texas .”

On Tuesday, Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins reported 80,000 sterile flies were released on “spot” and nearly 200 surge staff had been deployed to Mexico.

Thank you, @IngrahamAngle, for paying attention to this important issue. Due to multiple failures from our southern neighbors and failure to act in the last Admin, the devastating parasite New World Screwworm is knocking on our southern borders door. We’re not waiting, we’re… pic.twitter.com/ZO5Vx5oes8
— Secretary Brooke Rollins (@SecRollins) September 24, 2025

Mexico’s Response To New World Screwworm

According to Reuters, Mexican’s agriculture ministry said there is no risk of adult screwworm fly emergence due to the early detection of the infected bovine, which was confirmed on Sept. 21. The infected animal was in a shipment of 100 animals originating from the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz, according to the statement.

Fly traps in northern Mexico have not detected a single screwworm fly.

U.S.-Mexico Border Remains Closed to Cattle Trade

The Mexican border closure remains a topic of debate. The September Ag Economists’ Monthly Monitor found 80% of ag economists surveyed oppose reopening the border to Mexican cattle due to screwworm risks.

(Farm Journal)

The border closure has created significant division within the cattle industry with producers, feeders and industry leaders on both sides of the fence.

“We have some cattle people that are glad it’s closed. We’ve got others who are hit pretty hard and are not happy about it,” explains David Anderson, Texas A&M professor and extension specialist — livestock and food product marketing.

NWS is a threat the industry can not ignore, says the ag economist with more than 30 years under his belt.

“I think this is the most serious problem the industry has faced since I’ve been a livestock economist,” he stresses.

From his perspective, keeping the border open with heightened monitoring and surveillance could have potentially been more effective than implementing a total closure.

“If we go back and look at data from the early ‘70s, when we had a big screwworm outbreak in the U.S. and Mexico, the border was open,” he says. “I probably would have leaned to not closing the border to begin with. I understand why you would want to do that, but I don’t know that it’s ended up reducing the likelihood that we’re going to get screwworms, and yet we’re paying a price for that.”

According to Anderson the economic consequences to the border being closed are:

Significant loss of approximately 26,000 imported cattle weekly
Estimated 18% reduction in cattle placements in Southern plains
Contributed to tighter beef supplies and higher consumer prices
Substantial economic hit to cattle feeders and ranchers

At this point, he’s quick to admit keeping the border closed is the best option.

When it comes to reopening the border, Derrell Peel, Extension livestock marketing specialist with Oklahoma State University, suggests the decision is not straightforward.

“Given everything I’ve experienced, it’s probably prudent to leave the border closed,” he says.

He adds any reopening should be “under very, very controlled, limited circumstances.”

Peel emphasizes the need for a collaborative approach with Mexico.

“We’re kind of in it together, and so whether it’s here or there, we’ve got to work together,” he summarizes. “We’re going to need to control it in both places. Otherwise, it’s not going to benefit either one of us.”

He also points out not everybody in Mexico is sorry the border is closed. For example, cattle buyers in Mexico can source cattle cheaper because the border is closed.

“Keeping the border closed does affect the movement of cattle south of the border ... it builds a backstop for cattle movement north,” he adds.

Peel notes cattle from Central America to Panama have increasingly made their way to the Mexican market, which validates NWS movement in Mexico and why recent confirmation has occurred.

“The longer this goes on, the more the Mexican industry will adjust,” he says. “It might permanently change the way the [U.S. and Mexico] work together.”

Texas Rancher Weighs In On Impact of New World Screwworm

Texas rancher Wayne Cockrell says the parasite’s entry into the U.S. is inevitable, suggesting that winter and colder weather might temporarily delay the spread until next April or May. Cockrell, who serves as the Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association director and chair of the cattle health and well-being policy committee, recently joined AgriTalk to talk about NWS.

“We would much rather stop this on Mexico’s southern border than our Southern border,” Cockrell says.

Mexican feeder cattle traditionally represented 30% of Texas feedyard inventory, he adds, but with current restrictions, feedlots are adapting.

“I think a lot of those feedyards have moved to the dairy-cross side,” he adds. “They have had to change the way they do business.”

Noting the broader economic implications of the border closure, 1.2 million fewer cattle for Texas represents “about two weeks” of impact nationwide, according to Cockrell.

“Winter and sterile flies is what we need now,” Cockrell summarizes.

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Emergency Use of Animal Drugs Approved to Combat New World Screwworm

Tue, 19 Aug 2025 16:08:11 GMT

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued a declaration on Aug. 19 allowing the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to issue Emergency Use Authorizations (EUAs) for animal drugs to treat or prevent infestations caused by the New World screwworm (NWS).

This declaration applies only to drugs for animals. NWS infests warm-blooded animals, including livestock, pets, wildlife, and, in rare cases, humans, causing severe tissue damage and sometimes death. The risk to human health in the U.S. remains very low, but the potential future threat to animal populations and the food supply chain requires proactive action.

Although eradicated from North America and Central America decades ago, NWS has progressed north since 2022 and is now approaching the U.S. border with Mexico. This parasite poses an emerging threat to livestock and food security, with potential impacts on both national security and animal health.

“Today we are taking decisive action to safeguard the nation’s food supply from this emerging threat,” says HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. “This authorization equips FDA to act quickly, limit the spread of New World Screwworm, and protect America’s livestock.”

Currently, there are no FDA-approved drugs for NWS in the U.S. The FDA through an EUA can authorize the flexible, faster use of certain animal drug products that may be approved for other purposes, or available in other countries, but not formally approved for NWS in the U.S. This ensures veterinarians, farmers, and animal health officials have timely access to the tools they need to protect pets, livestock and the nation’s food supply.

“Thank you to my friends and partners Secretary Kennedy and Commissioner Makary who are answering the call and supporting our aggressive plan to push back and ultimately defeat this devastating pest. This emergency use authorization is another tool we can use in the fight against New World Screwworm,” says Secretary of Agriculture Brooke L. Rollins. “Our cattle ranchers and livestock producers are relying on the Trump Administration to defend their livelihoods. Stopping this pest is a national security priority and we are linking arms across President Trump’s cabinet to defend our borders and push back this threat.”

FDA Commissioner Marty Makary, M.D., M.P.H., adds, “Our priority is to safeguard both animal health and the nation’s food supply. FDA is acting swiftly and responsibly to help ensure we have the necessary tools to prevent and control New World Screwworm, minimizing risks to agriculture and public health.”

FDA will provide future guidance to veterinarians and stakeholders on the appropriate use of any products authorized for emergency use and update the New World Screwworm: Information for Veterinarians page.

Protect Your Herd: The Signs to Watch for Calf Pneumonia

Wed, 09 Jul 2025 10:52:01 GMT

Pneumonia in young calves is an important contributor to death loss before weaning. Many veterinarians and cattle producers think of post-weaning respiratory disease, also known as Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD), when they think about pneumonia in cattle; but calves can get pneumonia while they are still suckling their dams.

Bob Larson, K-State veterinarian, says because the risk factors associated with pre-weaning respiratory disease differ from BRD in stocker and feedlot cattle, which is usually associated with commingling and transportation.

“Our understanding of how to prevent and control BRD in post-weaned calves is not sufficient to address pneumonia in suckling calves,” he says. “Several studies investigating calf pneumonia have reported that an average of 3% to 11% of calves are expected to suffer from the disease each year. In addition, nearly 1.5% of calves will die from pneumonia before they reach the age of weaning; which makes it the second leading cause of pre-weaning death with only scours causing more losses.”

The most likely age for calves to be diagnosed with pneumonia is between 70 and 150 days of age.

Larson says cases of pneumonia are most likely to appear in:

Herds that have more cases of calf scours
Herds that bring in nursing calves from outside herds to graft onto cows that lost their calves
Creep-fed calves
Herds that synchronize cows

“Calves born after a difficult birth and calves that failed to consume enough colostrum have been shown to be at higher risk of getting sick and dying before reaching weaning age,” Larson explains.

Veterinarians indicated in a survey that weather, calving in confinement, failing to adequately vaccinate the herd, and nutritional deficiencies were also suspected for contributing to the risk of calf pneumonia.

Signs of Pneumonia

“Many times, the first sign that a herd has a problem is when a calf is found dead,” Larson warns. “Because death in young calves can also be caused by other diseases such as blackleg, digestive tract disease, or trauma, a veterinarian will probably need to examine the dead calf and may need to submit samples to a diagnostic laboratory to identify the cause of death.”

If you find calves that show signs of pneumonia such as rapid breathing, laying down and being reluctant to rise, and having a high temperature should be treated with an appropriate antibiotic after consulting with your veterinarian.

Tips for Prevention

Larson says vaccinating calves against viruses such as bovine viral diarrhea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), and bacteria such as Mannheimia haemolytica and Pasteurella multocida may help prevent outbreaks of calf pneumonia or reduce the severity of disease, but we know that a young calf’s immune system is not able to respond as well to vaccinations as an older calf’s.

“Because even a calf with a good immune response can be overwhelmed by a large exposure to germs, a successful plan to prevent disease in young calves needs to involve more than just vaccinations,” Larson adds.

He says the herds that have the best calf health have a short calving season and few heifers and cows experiencing calving difficulty. In addition, try to keep young calves away from mud and other calves as much as possible.

“Cows that calve in good body condition and that are on a good plane of nutrition are more likely to have healthy calves,” Larson says. “The best disease-control strategy is to focus on having good overall health of the cows and calves by meeting the herd’s nutritional needs, providing a good environment and timely use of vaccinations in the cows and calves.”

In summary Larson says, if calves are affected with pneumonia while suckling their dams on summer range, you should be prepared to recognize and treat cases as early as possible with appropriate antibiotics in order to minimize death losses.

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7 Management Practices for BRD Mitigation

Tue, 10 Jun 2025 15:42:53 GMT

The threat of disease-causing bacteria, Mycoplasma bovis, has risen with the increase of comingling in confinement cow-calf operations, according to Vickie Cooper, DVM, a Zoetis beef technical services from Iowa.

M. bovis causes bovine respiratory disease (BRD), targeting beef calves, and leads to irreversible lung damage, mortality, and higher production costs, she adds.

The bacteria are present in the respiratory system of perfectly normal calves but become a bigger problem when calves face stressors such as transportation, commingling, entry into the feedlot, and weather changes, Cooper explains.

Although disease symptoms are similar, the nature of M. bovis makes this pathogen more challenging to detect and treat than other BRD-causing pathogens, she adds.

“Mycoplasma bovis operates a bit like a chameleon,” Cooper says. “The organism lacks a cell wall, and has variable surface proteins, so mycoplasmas can assume many forms and are very good at evading the calf’s immune system.”

The lack of a cell wall also makes treatment more difficult.

“Symptoms must be caught very early for treatment to be effective,” Cooper says. “Mycoplasmas will begin forming communities within the lung, and once those communities are formed, it becomes very difficult for an antibiotic to penetrate the lesion and control the mycoplasmas.”

Management practices for BRD mitigation include:

Minimize commingling where possible and segregate groups based on age, sex and arrival date.
Provide good ventilation and avoid overcrowding.
Maintain proper sanitation of equipment and pens.
Provide adequate nutrition with fresh feed and clean water.
Use low-stress cattle handling techniques.
Provide adequate shelter and avoid dusty environments.
Consult your herd veterinarian for operation-specific strategies.

“We need to focus on doing all of the small things well,” Cooper says.

She encourages producers to work with their herd veterinarian to identify opportunities for improving calf management to limit the risk of M. bovis and other disease-causing pathogens.

Preventing BRD caused by M. bovis through vaccination

Helping to prevent M. bovis infection includes focusing on a calf’s environment and a vaccination program.

“Depending on your management practices and disease prevalence, Protivity may be a great fit for your herd,” Cooper says. “But a solid vaccination program only works if other preventive practices that prioritize calf well-being are also in place.”

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Unlocking Success with Cow Herd Health Metrics: A Scorecard Approach

Fri, 23 May 2025 15:12:10 GMT

Tracking performance and evaluating herd success is a year-round process. Similar to tracking athletes, consider developing a scorecard to monitor your herd. Understanding how your herd is performing throughout the year is important when considering management, nutrition and culling decisions.

The first scorecard suggested was post-calving ; the next one to consider is herd health metrics. Illness and death loss in a cow herd are situations cattle producers must routinely address.

To help producers know where their herd health metrics should be, experts at Kansas State University’s Beef Cattle Institute offered some guidelines during a recent “Cattle Chat” podcast .

“The first metric in cow-calf operations that I look at is the first treatment response percentage,” says Brian Lubbers, K-State veterinarian.

He recommended producers aim for an 85% to 90% treatment success rate when treating one of the most common illnesses: Bovine Respiratory Disease, also referred to as BRD. He says that metric can be deceiving.

“Producers who aggressively treat BRD cases are likely treating some animals that didn’t have BRD, and that leads to a high spontaneous recovery rate,” Lubbers says. “If you are seeing a 100% first treatment success rate, you may be treating some animals who didn’t need the treatment. Very high treatment response rates should at least trigger a conversation with your veterinarian about case definitions.”

K-State veterinarian Bob Larson says another metric that producers should be aware of is the percentage of death loss in the calves. During the first year of life, there are three key times when calves are more susceptible to death: at birth, between birth and three weeks of age, and from about one month to weaning, he says.

For each of these periods, producers can expect a 1% to 2% loss, Larson explains, however, that percentage will vary from year to year.

“In the first year of life, difficult births, scours and pneumonia are some of the reasons that calves get seriously ill and sometimes die,” Larson says.

K-State beef nutritionist Phillip Lancaster says what he monitors in the herd is the body condition of the cows.

“If the cows are receiving good nutrition and maintaining their body condition, that is an indicator of the overall health of the herd,” Lancaster says.

Along with those metrics, Logan Thompson, K-State beef cattle extension sustainable grazing specialist, recommends producers treat the herd against parasites as part of an overall wellness program.

“Treating the herd against parasites is an easy win from a production efficiency and cattle longevity standpoint, and it increases the rate of passage of grass through the rumen,” Thompson says. “It is a hard metric to measure, but in some herds, cattle that are treated for parasites have an increased efficiency between 20[%] to 30%.”

In summary, the key takeaways from the podcast are:

Health metrics are multifaceted and require careful tracking.
Different perspectives (veterinary, nutritional, sustainability) offer comprehensive insights.
Metrics should be specific, measurable and contextualized.
Collaboration with veterinarians is crucial for effective health management.

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Liver Flukes: Understanding and Effectively Managing the Parasite

Fri, 16 May 2025 11:58:42 GMT

While liver flukes rarely result in cattle death losses, understanding their underlying impact is important for cattle health and an operation’s bottom line.

“The biggest problem with flukes is their impact on production,” says Jody Wade, DVM, Boehringer Ingelheim. Liver flukes are one of the more complex parasites in beef production.

Before setting up camp in the bile ducts of the liver, juvenile flukes cause damage in the small intestine and abdominal cavity as they travel, leaving cattle with weakened immune systems and lost growth potential.

Cattle with liver fluke infections can go months without showing clinical signs. Depending on the level of infection, cattle can experience loss of appetite, rough hair coat, decreased performance, weight loss and poor reproductive efficiency.

“The ones that really pay for it on the back end are the packers,” Wade explains. “When they start harvesting cattle and find flukes, they have to condemn those livers.”

Liver condemnations can lead to significant financial losses, particularly for feedlots and processors.

Diagnostic Testing is Key for Awareness

Wade explains diagnostic testing is needed to confirm liver fluke presence, which often goes unnoticed.

“We’re finding flukes in regions we never thought they would be,” he observes. “Unless you’re taking fecal egg counts and actually looking for liver flukes as a cow-calf operator or a stocker, you’re not going to find them.”

Diagnostic testing in regions like Kansas and Tennessee has confirmed the presence of liver flukes, challenging the misconception that liver flukes are confined to the Gulf Coast or Pacific Northwest states.

Routine testing isn’t just crucial for fluke control, it’s important for sustainable management of all internal parasites.

“Not a lot of producers are routinely testing, because it can be a time burden,” Wade explains. “But I still encourage producers to do it, because once we do, we have a really good snapshot of what is happening on the operation, which allows us to create the most strategic deworming plan.”

When producers send fecal samples for diagnostic testing, he reminds them to specify their desire for liver fluke analysis. A general diagnostic test will only look for common gastrointestinal parasites.

Liver Flukes Require Special Management

“Right now, there are only two products in the marketplace available for effective fluke management,” Wade says. “When selecting a product for liver fluke control, it’s important to look for a product that has clorsulon , or is specifically labeled for fluke coverage.”

He further explains that the available products are only effective against adult stages and do not kill juvenile flukes, which cause the most damage. But, when applied correctly, the elimination of adult flukes can disrupt the production cycle and reduce the risk of pasture reinfestation.

Understanding the life cycle of liver flukes, from egg to adult, is essential for implementing effective control measures. Unlike other internal parasites, flukes need an intermediate host to propagate. For flukes, this is a common freshwater snail.

The fluke larvae migrate to snails, where they multiply. Once they exit the snail, cattle can ingest them by grazing on infested grass or drinking infested water.

While it isn’t realistic to keep cattle away from areas that also attract freshwater snails, sustainable deworming practices like pasture rotation and refugia, the practice of only deworming high-risk animals, are also ways to help control liver flukes and other parasite populations.

“Effective fluking really comes down to timing,” Wade says. “In the southeastern part of the country, like in Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, September is probably the best time to deworm for those liver flukes. In the Pacific Northwest, it’s a different deal. Most parasitologists will tell you to deworm between March and May, because it’s a later liver fluke season in that region.”

Wade says education is key to closing the gap between awareness and action.

“Sometimes, knowing that liver flukes may be a problem and not acting on that knowledge can be more harmful than not knowing at all,” he summarizes.

By adopting evidence-based practices, cattle caretakers can protect their herds, improve production outcomes and reduce the hidden costs of liver flukes. If flukes have been previously found in your area, Wade recommends getting a baseline for the herd through diagnostic testing. Only then can a sustainable, strategic deworming program be built through collaboration with a herd veterinarian.

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Legislators Reintroduce Bill to Recruit and Retain Veterinarians in High-Need Areas

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 22:54:34 GMT

The Rural Veterinary Workforce Act, bipartisan legislation to help recruit and retain veterinarians in underserved and rural areas, was reintroduced by Senators Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) and Tina Smith (D-Minn.) and Representatives Adrian Smith (R-Neb.) and John Larson (D-Conn.).

“In nearly every state in the country, there are shortages for veterinarians, especially in rural areas,” Sen. Smith says. “This record shortage causes serious harm to the health of animals and the public. Providing additional funding to the Veterinary Medicine Loan Repayment Program (VMLRP) and updating the tax code to better serve veterinarians will allow more qualified vets to do vital work with our animals in underserved communities.”

Strongly endorsed by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), this would expand the reach and maximize the allocated funding of the highly successful VMLRP, which can help to attract veterinarians in USDA-designated veterinary shortage areas by assisting with the significant obstacle of educational debt. It would also end the federal taxation on VMLRP awards, allowing more veterinarians to participate in a program that offers up to $120,000 over three years for student loan repayment in exchange for service in one of the designated shortage areas. In addition, it would align the tax code with human and other healthcare professions’ award funds.

“Veterinarians are vital to the work of America’s farmers and ranchers and the integrity of our food supply chain. Yet many areas of the country suffer from lack of access to their services,” Rep. Smith says. “This bipartisan bill would make commonsense tax relief available to veterinarians who choose to live and work in the communities which need their help to care for their livestock and protect the agriculture industry from pests and disease. I thank my colleagues for joining me in reintroducing it.”

In 2025, the USDA declared 243 rural veterinary shortage areas in 46 states, which is the highest number of shortage areas ever, AVMA said in a release. Since 2010, the USDA has awarded 883 VMLRP awards to veterinarians; meanwhile, 2,197 applications have been received to participate in the program since its inception.

“Recruiting and retaining veterinarians through the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act is key to protecting our nation’s food supply, preserving animal welfare, and upholding public health,” Sandra Faeh, AVMA president, said in a release. “Livestock and public health veterinarians are essential to strengthening the nation’s animal health infrastructure and agricultural economy. We urge Congress to address this increasingly important issue by passing the Rural Veterinary Workforce Act.”

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Vaccine Storage and Handling: Why the Temperature Matters

Mon, 24 Mar 2025 19:33:08 GMT

Vaccines are an integral part of animal health management for ranchers and a cost of production so understanding best practices for storing them is important.

“Exposure to temperatures beyond the optimal range has the potential to negatively impact the effectiveness of both killed and modified-live vaccines,” says Dr. Catherine Dowling, a beef technical services veterinarian with Zoetis. “The extent of that impact will depend on a variety of factors — including the vaccine type, for how long and to what extreme the vaccine has been exposed.”

What happens when vaccines are exposed to freezing temps?
“Vaccine freezing presents some unique hazards, and killed vaccines are especially susceptible,” Dowling says. “In a best-case scenario, the vaccine, or the adjuvant within it, will simply be rendered ineffective. This means that the animal’s immune response to that vaccine will not be as robust as it could be if the product was handled properly prior to administration.”

More serious consequences may occur if the vaccine includes a Gram-negative bacterial component, often found in products used for scours and respiratory disease prevention. When these types of vaccines are exposed to freezing temperatures, it releases compounds within the bottle called endotoxins.

“Endotoxins are normally contained very well within the bacterial cell walls, but they can burst as a result of freezing temperatures, leaving us with a situation called free endotoxins,” Dowling explains. “Vaccines containing free endotoxins may cause animals to experience a severe, life-threatening reaction after vaccination, with symptoms closely resembling anaphylaxis.”

What happens to vaccines exposed to temperatures above 46° F?
Just like with freezing, exposure to temperatures above the labeled range can reduce vaccine potency and effectiveness. That’s why it’s important to keep vaccines cool and out of direct sunlight as much as possible. For modified-live vaccines specifically, this likely means mixing only one bottle at a time and using the product within an hour of mixing, as heat and sunlight quickly work to degrade the vaccine after it’s mixed.

Is your farm refrigerator a culprit?
It’s easy to think about chuteside scenarios in which a product may be exposed to temperatures outside the ideal range, but it’s also important to consider where vaccines are typically stored — your on-farm refrigerator. You may be surprised at the variability in temperatures within your refrigerator.

In fact, a University of Arkansas case study comparing 191 on-farm refrigerators found that only 26.7% of refrigerators kept the temperature within the acceptable range.

Dowling recommends keeping a thermometer near the vaccines in the refrigerator and recording the temperature at different times throughout the day to ensure vaccines are stored according to label directions. Avoid storing vaccines in the door or at the back of the refrigerator to limit the risk of temperature variability or freezing.

Always refer to the product label for product storage and administration specifics and contact your local veterinarian with any questions.

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Determine Parasite Load and Follow With Treatment

Fri, 14 Mar 2025 15:17:56 GMT

Producers need to know which parasites they’re dealing with in order to best target their deworming program.

“A testing program incorporates fecal egg counts (FEC, measured as eggs per gram of feces) and coproculture (hatching larvae in the lab to identify them). When we perform a FEC, we quantify how many parasite eggs per gram of feces are being passed by the animal,” explains Wayne Ayers, DVM, technical consultant veterinarian with Elanco. “The issue with FEC alone is that four of the most common and most costly parasite eggs cannot be identified by looking under the microscope. In order to identify and separate, we must hatch and grow them in the lab.”

Why is it important to identify parasites and understand their relative proportions?

Each parasite presents a different risk for economic loss.
The four most concerning female parasites lay eggs at different rates. For instance, a female brown stomach worm will lay about 200 eggs per day, while a female barber pole worm can lay 10,000 eggs a day. Therefore, a 50 egg per gram FEC means something completely different if the eggs are from a brown stomach worm verses a barber pole worm.

Another component of parasite testing is called a fecal egg count reduction test [FECRT], which is used to determine treatment effectiveness. This involves collecting a fecal sample from each animal on the day of treatment and performing a FECRT. Follow-up samples from the same animals are collected seven to 10 days after administering a white dewormer or 14 to 21 days after a macrocyclic lactone.

The results of the before and after treatment FEC from the same animal are then compared. A reduction in eggs per gram must be 90% or greater to say the treatment was effective. When the FECRT is less than 90%, there is evidence there might be some resistance building in the parasite population. The lower the percent of change the greater the evidence of reduced efficacy and resistance to the product used.

Gone are the days of thinking we can eliminate parasites with an injection or pour on, Ayers says.

“The parasites will win if we don’t start managing them to a point that is physiologically tolerable for our cattle and at the same time is economically tolerable for producers,” he says.

Another strategy developed with producers in mind is that any animal, regardless of age, with a body condition score of 4 or less needs to be dewormed.

“It’s not even necessarily that the worms are causing them to be thin, but they need all the nutrients possible to get back to a body condition of 5.5 to 6,” Ayers explains. “I don’t want a parasite load reducing nutrients available to the cow or young stock.”

Additionally, any cattle that are younger than 3 years old need to be dewormed regardless of their body condition.

“Even young stock in good body condition need to be dewormed because they tend to have higher parasite numbers,” Ayers adds. “By treating them, we help prevent carrying them all winter long, then becoming high shedders in the spring, contaminating the pasture, and infecting the next generation at a higher level.”

Read more: A New Approach to Deworming

A New Approach to Deworming

Wed, 12 Mar 2025 14:15:00 GMT

When it comes to treating internal parasites, there’s no one-size-fits-all approach. Understanding the environment and knowing what parasites are active at different times of the year are important when creating a deworming plan, says Wayne Ayers, DVM, technical consultant veterinarian with Elanco.

“Cattle on an irrigated pasture are completely different than cattle coming off the desert,” he says. “We need to consider how parasites’ life cycles relate to the season to determine how we want to approach control.”

Why Deworm?
There are 15 different internal parasites, four or five of which cause the most economic loss. The brown stomach worm tops the list, specifically in young stock.

“When the brown stomach worm is present, it’s important to choose an anthelmintic dewormer because their larvae can inhibit and overwinter leading to a secondary disease called Type 2 Ostertagiasis,” Ayers explains.

Internal parasites cause digestive issues in the abomasum, which can lead to permanent damage.

“Young stock that have a heavy infection of inhibited larvae and go through a Type 2 disease can become less efficient because of damage to the abomasum that develops scar tissue,” he says. “We want to kill them before they come out because that’s when they cause damage.”

White wormers (benzimidazoles) work well at killing adults in the GI tract, he adds. The two subclasses of the macrocyclic lactone group, avermectins and milbemycins, do a good job of killing both adults and larvae.

“The youngest cattle are at the most risk because they get everything that’s out on the pasture and possibly in relatively high numbers. Their immune system has not been exposed to these parasites to develop any kind of immunity to the larval stages or even the adult stages,” Ayers explains.

“The older an animal gets, the more times they’ve seen it, and their immune system will actually suppress the infections and decrease the egg laying capacity of the females that reside in the GI tract,” he adds.

Resistance is on the Rise
At one time, the industry was convinced cattle should be dewormed every time they ran through the chute.

That approach might have worked in the 1980s when ivermectin came on the market, Ayers says, but it’s not a good practice today because resistance is developing.

When parasites are exposed to the same chemical over and over again, or the dosing isn’t correct, the last parasite remaining will have a high tolerance for the drug or be resistant all together. An infection sets in because of the tolerant or resistant parasite, leading to poor treatment response and a poor return on investment.

“I have a saying: ‘What’s in my cow is what’s on my pasture, what’s on my pasture is what’s in my calf, and what’s in my calf is what causes me economic loss. The losses aren’t from the cows.’”

Dr. Wayne Ayers

While there are situations when cows must be treated at certain times of the a year because of heavy parasites, it’s not common as the cow’s immune system usually limits parasite infection.

“It’s certainly not common across the northern part of the U.S. where we have the benefits of cold winters or in the Southwest that experiences hot, dry summers. These weather extremes don’t favor larvae survival,” Ayers says. “Unfortunately, in the Southeast, the long warm and humid summers favor the larvae.”

In addition, he says the larval load can vary from pasture to pasture. For instance, a large Bureau of Land Management or Forrest Service-type allotment will generally have a lower larval load than an irrigated pasture on the same ranch.

Foot And Mouth Disease: Producers Should Be Prepared

Tue, 11 Mar 2025 11:19:00 GMT

With the World Health Organization for Animal Health confirming outbreaks of Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD) in Germany on Jan. 10 and Hungary on March 6, 2025 , it’s important for producers to be aware of the risks of this disease, especially if — or when— it were to appear in the U.S.

“Foot and mouth disease, while harmless to us as human beings, is a highly contagious viral disease on animals with cloven-hooves, including cattle, pigs, sheep and goats,” says Meranda Small, Idaho State BQA Coordinator. “It also has the ability to impact and equally affect wildlife species such as deer, elk and bison, giving them the opportunity to move the disease across state lines and from one location to another.”

Barry Whitworth, DVM, Oklahoma State University Extension Veterinarian, says there are seven known serotypes of the Foot and Mouth Disease Virus (FMDV).

“The large number of serotypes makes vaccine development difficult since immunity to one serotype does not protect against others,” he explains. “The disease is not a public health threat, however, it can spread easily and cause severe economic hardship.”

How is FMDV transmitted?
FMDV can be found in all fluids excreted from infected animals, including saliva, urine, feces, fluid from vesicles, semen, amniotic fluid, and aborted fetuses. Expired air from infected animals can transmit the virus in the right environment. The virus can enter the body through inhalation, ingestion, and direct contact with infected animals and the virus can also be spread by contaminated objects and feed, Whitworth says.

What are the clinical signs of FMD?
Clinical signs of the disease can vary between species and the most common clinical sign are blisters or vesicles on the tongue, gums, teats, and the interdigital space of the hooves. In addition, fever, loss of appetite, excessive drooling or salivation, lameness, and decreased milk production in dairy animals are common symptoms, Whitworth shares.

In severe cases, particularly in young animals, FMD can cause heart inflammation, leading to sudden death. Most adult animals recover in two to three weeks. Although, some animals never return to full production or have permanent issues such as hoof malformation, chronic lameness, chronic mastitis, and weight loss, adds Whitworth.

“FMD is a difficult disease to control,” Whitworth says. “Most animals in the U.S. are very susceptible to FMD. If an outbreak were to occur in the U.S., the disease could spread rapidly, unless detected early and eliminated.”

The U.S. has not seen a case of FMD since 1929. Through the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Animal Plant and Health Inspection Service (APHIS) works the Department of Homeland Security’s Customs and Border Protection to screen cargo at the border to help with prevention. The U.S. restricts importation of animals and animal products from areas affected by FMD. APHIS deploys veterinarians worldwide to assist other countries in their efforts to control and eradicate the disease, Whitworth explains.

“If a case of FMD occurs in the U.S., livestock producers will probably be the first to see it,” Whitworth says. “For this reason, livestock producers should be familiar with the clinical signs of the disease. Any suspicious signs should be reported to a veterinarian.”

Resources for Livestock Producers
Due to the severe economic impact FMD would have on the U.S. food supply, resources have been put together to help producers.

“FMD is a constant threat to the U.S. livestock industry,” Whitworth says. “An outbreak would have significant economic consequences. U.S. cattle producers should remain vigilant at keeping this disease out of the U.S.”

Through the securebeef.org website, producers can find resources to create a five-step contingency document. It addresses cattle inventory and potential movement, financial planning, enhanced biosecurity, communication and cattle health management.

Sergio Arispe serves as Oregon State University Extension livestock and rangeland field faculty and associate professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences. He helped develop resources for livestock producers .

“The purpose of traceability is for transparency, not only within the livestock industry, but with our trade partners as well,” Arispe says. “Movement permits demonstrate that steps have been taken to safely move animals or products.”

Read more: Secure Food Supply Resources Available to Livestock Producers

Slovakia Records First Foot-and-Mouth Cases, Minister Says

Take a Two-Pronged Approach to Fly Season Control

Tue, 04 Mar 2025 22:18:16 GMT

As the weather warms up, it’s not too early to start thinking about fly management programs.

Jonathan A. Cammack, Oklahoma State University Cooperative Extension Service Livestock Entomology & Parasitology Specialist, says horn flies should be approached from multiple angles.

“A two-pronged approach of combining insecticide products targeted at different life stages, such as an ear tag for adult control, and a feed-through insect growth regulator (IGR) for larval control, will give you the highest probability of success in the battle against these pests,” Cammack explains.

Ear Tags
Ear tags are an effective method for the control of adult horn flies. Cammack recommends waiting to tag animals until horn fly numbers reach the threshold of 200 flies per animal to help ensure the ear tags are still effective into peak fly season in mid to late summer.

Most ear tags have an effective life of approximately four months, under ideal conditions. Weather can affect how long they last, so during the hottest days of summer the lifespan of an ear tag may be three months or less, Cammack adds.

“It’s never too late to tag, but it can be too early,” he says. “Make sure to use a different chemical class than you did last year, to help slow the development of insecticide resistance.”

When picking a synthetic pyrethroid tag, choose one that is synergized, and contains piperonyl butoxide (PBO) as an active ingredient, he says.

Yearly rotation schedule for ear tags.

(Cammack)

IGRs
IGRs help manage larval horn flies, and larvae of other biting and nuisance flies that develop in decomposing organic matter such as manure.

“Feed-through IGRs are consumed by the cattle, and pass through their digestive tract and are excreted in the manure, which serves as a food source for larval flies,” Cammack explains. “When the larvae consume this IGR in the manure, they will not successfully complete their development to the adult stage.”

Cammack recommends to start feeding minerals or supplemental feeds containing IGRs during the month of March and continue through October.

“We want to make sure all of the manure in pastures contains the IGR, so we can start to have an impact on developing fly larvae (particularly horn flies) as soon as the adults become active and start laying eggs in the manure, and throughout the remainder of the fly season.”

Products that are registered as feed-throughs for cattle contain one of two active ingredients:

Methoprene (examples: Altosid® IGR, Dipteracide®, Pertinent IGR)
or
Diflubenzuron (examples: ClariFly®, JustiFly®, HerdGuard^TM)

“If you have been feeding your cattle hay over the winter, it is likely that the hay, manure, and urine mixture surrounding your round bale feeding sites is a breeding site for stable flies,” Cammack says. “During the spring, as it starts to rain more frequently, this wasted hay can remain wet, and continues to be a source of development for stable flies.”

For these instances, premise granular IGR products can be spread around on top of this wasted hay surrounding the round bales. The granular products dissolve and come into with or are consumed by larval stable flies and prevent their development to the adult stage, Cammack explains. Examples are Novaluron (Exhalt^TM WDG) and Cyromazine (flynexx® granules).

“Taking the two-pronged approach can help minimize the impacts of horn flies and other nuisance and biting flies on your herds,” Cammack says.

Raised with Respect™ Rewards Producers with Current BQA Certificates

Mon, 27 Jan 2025 21:26:10 GMT

Taking care of your herd is part of the job of every stockman, and it’s the right thing to do. While you’re not committed to cattle care for recognition, you could be rewarded for holding a current Beef Quality Assurance (BQA) certification.

Through two incentive opportunities, Certified Angus Beef (CAB) and Sysco are recognizing producers who go above and beyond to show commitment to their herd.

Raised with Respect™, a campaign that highlights a shared commitment to cattle care through BQA, is a partnership between Certified Angus Beef (CAB) and Sysco. It elevates the cattle industry’s work to address consumer concerns about animal welfare and reinforce trust in producers, which helps to ensure future demand for beef.

“By partnering with Sysco and collaborating with National Cattlemen’s Beef Association at Cattle Con, we are able to support and recognize producers who value continued education,” says Kirsten Nickles, Ph.D., CAB sustainability and animal care scientist. “Because CAB has relationships with every segment of the beef supply chain, we value the opportunity to come alongside BQA education at Cattlemen’s College.”

Get BQA’d at Cattle Con
During Cattle Con 2025, producers can become eligible to win two Greeley Hat Works custom pure beaver felt hats and hat cans while in San Antonio.

One Greeley Hat Works giveaway will go to a Cattle Con attendee who gets BQA certified during the BQA Certification: Rise to the Top session on Thursday, February 6 from 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. in the Demo Arena in the NCBA Trade Show.

The other hat giveaway will go to an attendee who attends Continuing Education (CE) sessions during Cattlemen’s College on Wednesday, February 5. To qualify, you must attend at least one session that counts towards CE credits and submit the questionnaire distributed at each session. To renew a BQA certificate at Cattle Con, you must attend three CE sessions as denoted by the BQA logo on the Cattlemen’s College schedule at Convention.NCBA.org/Education/Cattlemens-College.

Continuing Education was designed to renew a BQA certificate through credits achieved online at BQA.org or available sessions during Cattlemen’s College. This renewal option is only available to those who obtained a BQA certificate in the last four years. Anyone who has not been BQA’d in the last four years must attend an in-person BQA certification or complete the online modules.

The two winners of the Greeley Hat Works custom hats will be randomly selected by CAB at the conclusion of the BQA certification session on Thursday in the Demo Arena. Winners do not need to be present to claim the vouchers.

Enter the Raised with Respect™ Sweepstakes
To recognize cattlemen and women who go the extra step to show their commitment to cattle care through BQA certification, CAB and Sysco are holding the Raised with Respect™ Sweepstakes. Anyone who submits a current BQA certificate by February 14 is entered to win a John Deere Gator™. The giveaway includes the 845R – XUV 845R John Deere Premium Cab Crossover Utility Vehicle.

The winner will randomly be selected at 3:00 p.m. Eastern on February 14 and contacted to set up the order and delivery details, expecting to receive the Gator™ in late spring.

Everyone who enters a current BQA certificate will receive beef sticks from CAB. Those who enter and do not win will remain in the running for a final giveaway this spring. Not certified and unable to attend Cattle Con? Get BQA’d online in just a few hours at BQA.org. Review the Sweepstakes Rules at CABcattle.com/RaisedWithRespect. Must live in the contiguous U.S., be 18 or older and have a current BQA certificate to be eligible.

Your next read: Nalivka: What’s Impacting the Pace and Extent of Herd Building?

Industry Seeks to Address Bovine Congestive Heart Failure With Selection Tools

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 20:06:56 GMT

With the growing trend of heavier cattle and carcass weights, packers are seeing higher rates of bovine congestive heart failure (BCHF). Justin Buchanan, PhD, of Simplot Land and Livestock, in Grandview, Idaho, addressed the issue during the 2024 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium.

“This is a real problem in the industry, which is why we are investing so much into developing selection tools we can use to address the problem,” said Buchanan, who spoke about the associations among BCHF, organ phenotypes, data collected at the plant and treatment records for BRD.

Creating traceable phenotypes for heart failure
Simplot’s packing facility, CS Beef Packers, has collected more than 100,000 heart scores since 2020, with 50% showing morphological changes that indicate a progression of BCHF. 4% of the animals with heart scores were classified as score 4 or 5, indicating late-stage heart failure. These scores form the basis of their BCHF EPD.

Findings showed that while BCHF occurs in all breeds, beef breeds had higher concentrations of animals with high heart scores, specifically high percentage Angus, than beef-on-dairy. Notably, a GWAS performed by Gencove did not find the same associations of BCHF with the ARRDC3 or NIFA variants found in other studies. Heritability of heart score was between 0.3 and 0.4, leading Buchanan to believe BCHF is a polygenic trait that selective breeding decisions can influence.

Other findings were that hot carcass weight was the most associated trait with BCHF at 0.4.

“When we use our selection indexes to drive carcass weight and growth, we are pulling those congestive heart failure cases right along with that selection,” Buchanan said. “So, if we don’t create a tool to select against this, it’s just going to get worse over time.”

Within Simplot’s purebred herds, the mean EPD values for heart score were 0.102 for Angus, -0.037 for Charolais and Herefords with -0.003.

Traits of lung deflation score and BRD treatment records were included in the selection model to increase accuracy. Lungs failing to deflate post-harvest indicate fibrosis, and higher heart scores from this cohort were correlated with increased pathology and lungs that failed to deflate. BRD was also included via a score based on the number of treatments in the feedlot.

Regarding genetic parameter estimates, the heritabilities of BRD, BCHF, and lung deflation were calculated at 0.14-0.12, 0.29, and 0.27, respectively. Buchanan proposed that the correlation of 0.9 between lung deflation and BCHF shows they may be indicator traits for one another.

Next steps in developing a BCHF EPD
“The next steps for our program are to make multi-trait genetic evaluations. That’s always something we are trying to do,” Buchanan explained. This multi-trait model would be used to start a total health model. Economic weights for BRD and BCHF would be included, as well as histopathology findings from Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

For this population, there is a genetic correlation between the PAP score and heart score of only 0.2, indicating that PAP may be a sign of cardiopulmonary abnormalities at altitude, but not a useful indicator of heart health in the feedlot. The two-marker test from USMARC also showed a false positive rate of 77%.

Buchanan emphasized that the most practical tools for managing BCHF include stress management, crossbreeding and utilization of selection tools. One such selection tool mentioned was the Simplot BCHF EPD itself, which is included in the Igenity Beef panel from NEOGEN. Buchanan pointed out that it is the most accurate model currently available and will be updated annually with improvements.

Here’s Dr. Buchanan’s full presentation:

For more information about this year’s Symposium and the Beef Improvement Federation, including additional presentations and award winners, visit BIFSymposium.com .

Your next read: An Update on Foot-and-Mouth Disease Virus Serotype O in Germany

Livestock Export Testing Safeguards Against Infectious Diseases

Tue, 24 Dec 2024 12:14:00 GMT

For producers looking to export livestock, the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory is the only laboratory in Texas authorized to perform testing on any livestock destined for export.

The lab is authorized to perform testing that meets U.S. Department of Agriculture , USDA, and international requirements, TVMDL’s livestock export testing safeguards human and animal health internationally by mitigating the spread of diseases and ensuring the sustainability of international commerce.

“The goal of export testing is to ensure we don’t move infectious diseases around the world through exported animals,” says Terry Hensley, DVM, TVMDL assistant agency director and Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service veterinarian, Bryan-College Station. “As a diagnostic lab, we are doing our part to run the tests requested by a certain country.”

Those countries establish regulations with organizations like the World Organization for Animal Health. They indicate which diseases need to be tested for, the acceptable tests, and sometimes even timeframes for testing.

From paperwork to protocols, the export testing process can be complex. TVMDL strongly encourages clients to consider the following when requesting export testing:

Be aware of the destination country’s animal health requirements.
Organize paperwork and samples.
Proactively submit samples to ensure timely results.

Stay aware of a destination country’s animal health requirements

Hensley explains that export testing focuses on ensuring compliance with the health certification standards of the destination country. Neglecting exact protocols can cause clients to face delays, quarantines, rejections or worse at import-country borders.

“If there are problems when those animals get to that destination country, it could be bad,” Hensley says. “They can either be given the option to send those animals back to the U.S., or sometimes they’re going to do retesting. In the worst case, they get euthanized at the point of destination.”

Therefore, clients must work closely with their veterinarians and take time to orient themselves to the updated animal testing regulations of the destination country. Communication with the USDA and the destination country ensures an appropriate plan and reduces the risk of error.

The types of tests required may vary depending on where animals are transported. Some of the more common serological tests TVMDL performs for export are to detect antibodies to diseases such as brucellosis, bluetongue and bovine leukemia. Testing is mainly performed using blood samples. However, other sample types may include nasal swabs, fecal or tissue samples and, in some cases, milk or semen samples.

Hensley recommends clients ensure samples are stored and shipped according to the instructions outlined on each test’s listing on the TVMDL website. These instructions ensure samples are handled and shipped in a manner that would help them arrive at TVMDL in a testable condition.

Organizing paperwork and samples

“I think the key is good communication and organization,” Kalyn Green, assistant section head for serology at TVMDL, says.

Paperwork should include all forms of identification for each exported animal, such as the official identification numbers and microchip numbers. All samples must be labeled and linked to the animal from which it was collected. Green encouraged the use of electronic forms to minimize human error and illegible handwriting on labels.

Besides animal and sample identification, she also mentioned that premise ID, sample collection date, country of export and veterinarian signature are often needed and sometimes forgotten.

Proactively submit samples to ensure timely results

Clients should submit samples for testing well ahead of all regulatory deadlines or departures. In addition, some tests must be performed within a certain timeframe before export.

“Timing is huge,” Green says. “Some tests require a specific window before export, for example, within 30 or 60 days of departure. Also, account for how long it takes to get the results. For some of our serologic tests, if we have a suspect reaction, we must send the sample to the National Veterinary Services Laboratory for confirmation.”

Export testing can be complex but is a manageable process with the proper preparation and information. For more information on export testing at TVMDL, visit https://tvmdl.tamu.edu or call the College Station lab at 888-646-5623.

This story originally appeared on the Texas A&M Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory website.

Emergency USDA Funding Available to Protect U.S. Livestock and Animals from New World Screwworm

Fri, 13 Dec 2024 18:09:21 GMT

On Dec. 13, the United States Department of Agriculture’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) announced $165 million in emergency funding from the Commodity Credit Corporation to protect U.S. livestock and other animals from New World screwworm (NWS) and to increase USDA’s ongoing efforts to control the spread of NWS in Mexico and Central America. NWS are fly larvae that infest living tissue of warm-blooded animals, causing infection, according to an agency release.

NWS has spreadout throughout Panama and into Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala during the last two years. With the finding of a NWS-positive cow found in Mexico on Nov. 22, APHIS and Mexican authorities have taken additional measures to prevent further spread through surveillance, animal health checkpoints and domestic preparedness. In addition, USDA is working with partners in Mexico and Central America to establish a barrier on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, eradicate NWS from the affected areas, and reestablish the biological barrier in Panama.

“The current outbreaks in Central America demonstrate the need for USDA to increase its investment in NWS eradication and prevention,” says Jenny Lester Moffitt, USDA Under Secretary for Marketing and Regulatory Programs. “If NWS were to spread to the United States, it would result in significant economic losses and threats to animal health and welfare. This funding will allow for a coordinated emergency response to control the outbreak and prevent NWS from spreading to the United States.”

APHIS asks all producers along the southern border to watch their livestock and pets for signs of NWS and immediately report potential cases to their local veterinarian, State Veterinarian’s Office, or APHIS Veterinary Services.

According to APHIS, eradicating NWS is only possible through sterile insect technique. With this method, sterile flies are released into an area where a known population has become established. The sterile male screwworm fly mates with fertile female screwworm fly, causing the population of screwworm flies to decrease until it eventually dies out.

To learn more about NWS, visit the APHIS website .

Read more: Texas Tech Veterinarian Weighs In On New World Screwworm

New World Screwworm: Latest Update from USDA-APHIS

APHIS Increases Import Restrictions on Animal Products from Mexico on Confirmed Case of New World Screwworm

Research To Address Potential Disease Transmission Between Livestock and Wildlife

Mon, 09 Dec 2024 21:52:50 GMT

The H5N1 bird flu — widespread in wild birds worldwide and the cause of outbreaks in poultry, U.S. dairy cows and even several recent human cases among agricultural workers – is a prime example of mixed species disease transmission occurring where wildlife and livestock interact.

Sapna Chitlapilly Dass, Ph.D., assistant professor in microbial ecology and microbiome interactions, Department of Animal Science, is studying the ongoing threat of emerging pathogens that can necessitate prompt deployment of medical countermeasures for life-saving interventions. She is also part of a research team at a Texas A&M AgriLife in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

Dass wants to address the potential of disease transmission at the rangeland level rather than waiting until it reaches the SARS-CoV-2 virus level in the human population. She worked extensively on solving problems with COVID-19 in the supply chain.

“Dairy cattle are not a known host for avian influenza, so that was quite a shocker when it jumped species,” she says. “Disease transmission is inevitable, and we will see more with unusual hosts getting this disease. So, we should take care of what we can fix before it can become human-to-human transmission.”

Dass is leading a research initiative dedicated to identifying pathogens, monitoring transmission pathways, and implementing rapid responses to address the potential danger posed by unidentified pathogens that could lead to severe epidemics.

The project, “A systems approach to understanding wildlife-farm animal-environmental drivers of zoonotic disease transmission in the food supply chain,” is funded by a $3.03 million U.S. Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service grant.

History tells us
Out of the 400 recorded instances of emerging infectious diseases since 1940, Dass said bacterial pathogens constitute 54%, viral or prion pathogens 25%, protozoa 11%, fungi 6%, and parasitic worms 3%.

This graphic shows the potential for infectious disease spread in the environment.

(Sapna Dass/Texas A&M AgriLife)

Despite their lower frequency, RNA viruses, such as those responsible for HIV, influenza H1N1 and H5N1, SARS-CoV-2, Lassa virus, Ebola virus and MERS-CoV have caused the most devastating recent emergence events.

“Human intersection with ecosystems, which is driven by urban expansion, along with the proximity of agricultural lands to wildlife habitats and the extending range of wildlife reservoirs collectively amplify the occurrence of zoonotic diseases,” Dass says.

This research project employs SARS-CoV-2 as a model virus to study spillover events from white-tailed deer to livestock, examine mechanisms of virus persistence in the environment, and assess their potential impact on human health.

“We want to determine what we can do before a disease reaches the point of vaccinating humans; fix the root cause,” she said. “The root cause is the wildlife and livestock intermingling. If we can take care of that, we can prevent overwhelming the healthcare system, which took a beating during the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic.”

The project
The project allows both wildlife and livestock to be put in a controlled environment to see whether the transmission happens. It is a lengthy procedure, but the USDA’s National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, has done a phenomenal job of cohabiting the animals so “we can get real-world disease transmission results,” Dass says.

“With our systems approach, we can look at environmental maintenance of the virus, using our Biosafety Safety Level 3 facility at the Global Health Research Complex,” she says. “For example, what occurs in a water trough or elsewhere when both livestock and wildlife drink water from the same source on the rangeland?”

Dass says this complex research requires collaboration between scientists from different specialties working together — people in animal disease, veterinary biosciences, wildlife and genomics.

The team working with Dass includes:

Tammi Johnson, Ph.D., AgriLife Research wildlife disease ecologist and associate professor in the Department of Rangeland, Wildlife and Fisheries Management, Uvalde, concentrating on wildlife disease ecology.

Martial Ndeffo, Ph.D., assistant professor, Texas A&M Veterinary Integrative Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Bryan-College Station, who specializes in infectious disease transdisciplinary modeling.

Paola Boggiatto, Ph.D., DVM, National Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa, who works on mixed species disease transmission between whitetail deer and livestock at the animal biosafety level 3 lab.

Jason McDermott, Ph.D., Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington, who specializes in systems biology and multiomics modeling.

“Infectious disease transmission is expected to happen,” Dass says. “But we’ll find out if and how it can be controlled by limiting exposure.”

Your next read: Legal and Economic Considerations for Direct Beef Sales

A Healthy Rumen in Cattle Affects Overall Health and Profitability

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 18:09:34 GMT

The primary goal of a cow-calf producer is to have a live calf at weaning and as many as possible for your operation. Rumen health is a key factor in achieving and maintaining pregnancy, birthing a healthy live calf and passing along a good amount of colostrum to give that calf its best start.

“A live calf to wean is the single most important thing we have as a cow-calf producer; that’s our goal,” says James Davison, who owns and operates a preconditioning and backgrounding operation in south-central Texas. He grew up on a large cattle operation and has been starting high-risk calves since 1976.

Speaking at the Idaho Cattle Association Annual Convention in November, Davison shared the pathway to improving the numbers of calves weaned and the weight they achieve at weaning is to help the mother cow.

He encourages producers to be planners and record keepers when it comes to management practices. Analyzing past decisions can help producers understand climate impacts on animals and what to do to address those challenges.

With factors such as weather, environment and limited feed resources putting added stress on the cowherd, year-round supplementation with rumen health products is something for producers to consider.

While producers might initially question if they can afford the annual input cost, Davison says to do the math to see what it would actually mean to an individual operation, especially keeping in mind the end goal — more calves and more pounds to sell at weaning.

“Don’t speculate when you can calculate,” he says. “Every operation has a different climate, environment and feed resources, so what works for one doesn’t necessarily work for another.”

That’s why planning and evaluating the plan regularly is important for any cattle producer.

“For the last 10 years, I took a notebook and wrote stuff in it every quarter,” Davison says. “I could go back and see what worked and what didn’t. As a pathway to being a better producer, let’s look at things that improve efficiency.”

Healthy Cows Lead to Healthy Calves
The cow makes colostrum, which gives calves a healthy start.

“If the calf does not get lots of a good, healthy volume of colostrum, he doesn’t achieve what we need him to achieve because he’s lagging behind from the start,” Davison says. “We’re still going to sell at the end of the growing season because we have to cash flow. If he doesn’t start the race, he’s last in line when we get to the end.”

This is just one of those goals Davison says should influence management decisions.

“Once she’s had that calf and she’s making a bunch of colostrum and her energy requirements go up, we have to get her bred back,” he says. “Peak milk production is around 85 days.”

Davison says producers should be proactive and ready for changes in weather or other factors during that time, rather than reactive and realizing problems later.

“If she doesn’t get the nutritional support she needs, she won’t milk as hard or won’t breed back,” he says.

In the rumen, the volatile fatty acid (VFA) butyrate provides energy to the GI tract to utilize what that animal eats. The health of the rumen affects the immune system of the cow.

“We have to keep that in mind because the animal’s GI tract does not function or function well without the volatile fatty acid butyrate,” Davison says. “And when you drop consumption or intake 10%, then we can get the snowball effect. We get the cow that doesn’t respond, and our inputs have no effect. It’s important to keep that GI tract healthy so it can absorb and utilize all the nutrition we’re feeding that animal.”

Having a healthy rumen is important especially when weather and the environment also put stress on calves, which can lead to disease.

“We have a constant exposure to pathogens that cause scours,” Davison says. “If we’re able to handle those and have supported the cow, she doesn’t shed all those pathogens to her calf.

Davison says every operation is different and encourages producers to calculate the cost of year-round supplementation for their cowherds, and to make sure they are keeping records and consulting nutritionists and veterinarians to make sure all management decisions are aligning with the end goal of producing beef.

Your next read: Monitor Nutrition Requirements of the Cowherd to Stay Profitable

Texas Tech Veterinarian Weighs In On New World Screwworm

Thu, 05 Dec 2024 17:47:01 GMT

USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has heightened import restrictions on animal products from Mexico since detection of New World Screwworm in a Mexican cow on Nov. 22. It has also intensified efforts in Central America to contain the spread of New World screwworm. Animal health experts say it’s warranted as it’s a significant threat to U.S. animal health.

“It can have a huge impact, certainly an economic impact, because it decreases the health and wellness of our livestock,” says Jennifer Koziol, associate professor of food animal medicine and surgery, Texas Tech School of Veterinary Medicine. “We’re thinking about loss of animal use, and certainly thinking about our wildlife populations that could be decimated by this disease.”

The pest can infest any warm-blooded animal, including humans.

“The screwworm fly lies its eggs in an open wound on the animal,” Koziol says. “These larvae or worms just eat the flesh of that animal. It can be devastating to any animal that becomes infected with screwworm.”

Koziol advises producers to monitor herds, especially in the southern U.S., and use preventative measures, including sterile fly introduction or animal health products.

“It looks like Doramectin has about a 28-day efficacy period against this,” she adds. “Ivermectin is similar. We’re looking at those products and how we can use them as an aid in preventing disease.”

According to APHIS, it appears this case is isolated, which leaves the cattle industry asking when will the border restrictions ease for Mexican cattle and product imports.

Koziol says the border could likely open after Christmas or around the first of January.

“We’re working really hard to set up some pre-export pens that APHIS will go in and OK and feeling very good about the protocols set in place,” she adds.

Impact on Cattle Prices
Market analysts say when the border reopens it might hurt cattle prices in the South more than the North.

“They could break a little bit, but I think the reality of the deal is it looks like there’s enough people out there who believe that ownership is the key when it comes to having some cattle around them as tight supplies are very, very tight of yearling-type steers,” says Brad Kooima, Kooima Kooima Varilek. “That’s going to still put a prop underneath the thing because the cash index is so strong.”

The price impact will likely be short lived.

Read more: New World Screwworm: Latest Update from USDA-APHIS

APHIS Increases Import Restrictions on Animal Products from Mexico on Confirmed Case of New World Screwworm