Cattle Bloat, US Beef Imports and Exports, Copper and Trace Minerals, Johnes Disease

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5:43 Cattle bloat

11:48 US beef imports and exports

18:31 Cooper and other trace minerals

25:15 Listener Question: Johnes Disease vs. BVD

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Brazil Production System, Mineral Selection Plans, Calving Timing, Needle Size

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2:21 Brazil production system

8:36 Mineral selection plans

13:40 Factors influencing calving timing

21:50 Needle size selection and maintenance

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Nutritional Technology Impacts Animal Health and Social Sustainability of Beef Production

Animal health and welfare are important components of social sustainability. In the beef industry, bovine respiratory disease complex is likely the largest issue, and also influences antimicrobial stewardship. Nutritional stress when adapting cattle to high grain diets occurs in the form of subacute acidosis predisposing cattle to other health challenges such as bovine respiratory disease. Acidosis occurs from overproduction of lactic acid from rapid fermentation of starch, and the slow adaptation of cattle to a high grain finishing diet is necessary to allow the population of lactic acid utilizing bacteria in the rumen that keep the lactic acid concentration low and rumen pH high.  Subacute rumen acidosis has been linked to the release of lipopolysaccharides from dead bacteria causing inflammation that may predispose cattle to other health issues. Early bovine respiratory disease research indicates that high concentrate starting diets and lack of adequate roughage intake during the receiving period, both of which could result in subacute rumen acidosis, increase the incidence of respiratory disease.

A major lactic acid utilizing bacteria in the rumen is megasphaera elsdenii.  Inoculation of cattle with M. elsdenii when introducing a high starch diet, stabilizes rumen pH, prevents subacute rumen acidosis, and allows stepping cattle up to the finishing diet quicker. Additionally, inoculation of feedlot cattle on arrival can reduce respiratory morbidity, particularly in higher-risk calves, although the number of studies is limited (Figure 1).  Clinical signs of rumen acidosis and respiratory disease are somewhat similar and misdiagnosis can occur. Thus, the reduction in respiratory morbidity could be those calves with rumen acidosis being misdiagnosed as bovine respiratory disease.  But either way, inoculation of cattle with M. elsdenii at arrival can reduce animal disease and antimicrobial use. Nutritional technology plays a role in animal health-improving antimicrobial stewardship and social sustainability.


Figure 1. Prevalence of bovine respiratory disease in calves (1 study) or yearlings (2 studies) receiving megaspheara elsdenii orally at arrival (ME) or not (Control). Data from McDaniel (2009; https://krex.k-state.edu/dspace/handle/2097/1666) and Miller et al. (2013; Bovine Practictioner 47:137)

News Update, BVD, Summer Pasture Utilization, Listener Question

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2:45 News update: African Swine Fever

6:05 Bovine viral diarrhea

15:54 Summer pasture utilization

24:14 Listener question: bulls

BVD Resources
BVD Consult

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

Liver Flukes

Bob L. Larson, DVM, PhD
Beef Cattle Institute
Kansas State University

Liver flukes are a large flat worms that can invade the liver of cattle. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports that about 5% of slaughtered cattle are infected and their livers are condemned. Liver flukes cause economic loss through liver condemnation at slaughter as well as decreased growth and reproductive efficiency. In addition, Black disease and redwater disease are caused by clostridial bacteria that live in soil (same family as the organism causing blackleg) and if they get a “foothold” in the liver due to damage caused by flukes, these diseases can be fatal.

Because these parasites requires a specific type of water-living snail for some stages of the lifecycle, cattle in many parts of the country are not at risk; but in areas where certain snails are commonly found, a high percentage of adult cows can be infected. Cattle can only be infested by eating snails that have been infected by fluke larva. The most common fluke infesting cattle is Fasciola hepatica. The other common liver fluke is the giant deer fluke or Fascioloides magna.

Cattle most likely to be affected with F. hepatica are those in certain parts of the country that are grazing in low-lying swampy areas, flood irrigation areas, or anywhere that surface water or small, slowly moving streams favor large populations of snails. The snail that serves as the intermediate host of Fasciola hepatica is found in the Gulf Coast states and some western states. The giant deer fluke is a problem in Gulf Coast states, the Great Lakes region and the Pacific Northwest where it naturally infests deer, elk, and moose. Cattle can also become infected with the giant deer fluke and experience liver damage, but this species of fluke cannot fully mature and lay eggs when infecting cattle. In the Gulf Coast states, most fluke transmission occurs between the months of February and June. Transmission stops with the death of fluke eggs, snails, and immature flukes in the first sustained drought of the summer. In the Pacific Northwest, cold winter conditions inhibit snail and fluke reproduction.

Young flukes cause extensive liver damage as they move through the liver, but they are difficult to kill at this stage of the lifecycle. The amount of damage to the liver is related to the number of young flukes migrating through – with some cattle showing few or no signs of problems and other cattle experiencing severe problems such as diarrhea, weight loss, and a yellowing of the membranes around the eyes and vulva in heavily infested cattle. Adult flukes cause very little damage, but are relatively easy to kill with available treatments.

Even though cattle living in many states cannot become infected with flukes, cattle already infected can be transported to any part of the country and be diagnosed far from the source of the flukes. Most cattle infested with liver flukes do not appear unhealthy, and death is very rare. Some mildly infested cattle have no reduction in performance but cattle with a higher level of infestation will have decreased weight gain, poorer body condition, and decreased milk production. The poorer body condition of cows infested with flukes may lead to decreased pregnancy rates. 

Diagnosis often occurs during a necropsy or at slaughter. F. hepatica can sometimes be diagnosed by testing a manure sample, but because fluke eggs are much larger than other cattle parasite eggs, the tests commonly used for other cattle worm eggs may not detect fluke eggs even if they are present. Another problem with relying on manure sample tests to diagnose fluke infections is that flukes less than 2 to 3 months of age are immature and unable to lay eggs. Therefore, cattle can be showing signs of diarrhea and weight loss due to migrating young flukes, but the test will be negative. Even in older infections, few flukes reach adulthood and they pass a small number of eggs – therefore, an animal with a heavy fluke population could have a negative test. Because Fascioloides magna (the giant deer fluke) does not complete its life cycle in cattle, no eggs are produced or passed in the manure, so the only way to diagnose infections with this species is at slaughter or necropsy.

Most dewormers available for treatment of cattle parasites do not affect flukes. Your veterinarian can help you identify one of the available treatments that can be used in fluke infections, but these treatments only are effective against adult F. hepatica flukes (greater than 11 weeks of age) and are almost totally ineffective against Fascioloides magna (giant deer flukes). Timing of fluke treatment is very dependent on your location and grazing pattern, therefore if you live in an area with a risk of liver fluke infection, you should work with your veterinarian to devise an appropriate control plan. Removal of adult flukes will not decrease risk of liver condemnation, because the damage has already been done, but it does enhance performance in severely fluke-infested cattle and may help decrease exposure of snails living in your pastures to the fluke eggs. Prevention in areas of the U.S. that harbor the snails necessary for the liver fluke lifecycle involves draining shallow stagnant ponds, fencing cattle away from shallow bodies of water, or treatment of infested water to remove snails.

Impact of Grazing Season, AI Synchronization, Cow Depreciation, Hair Shedding

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1:47 Impact of the Grazing Season Length on Profitability

10:28 Consideration of AI synchronization in Cows

16:36 Listener Question: Documenting Cow Depreciation

24:37 Listener Question: Hair Shedding

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!

War Against Weeds, Weed Management, Grazing Management, Natives vs. Introduced

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Guest: Sarah Lancaster

2:36 War Against Weeds podcast

6:00 Weed management in pastures

17:42 Grazing management

23:49 Natives vs. introduced pastures

War Against Weeds on Apple Podcasts

For more on BCI Cattle Chat, follow us on Twitter at @The_BCIFacebook, and Instagram at @ksubci. Check out our website, ksubci.org. If you have any comments/questions/topic ideas, please send them to bci@ksu.edu. You can also email us to sign up for our weekly news blast! Don’t forget if you enjoy the show, please go give us a rating!.