Bovine Veterinarians Research Articles

Emerging topics in dairy cattle welfare

Since cattle were domesticated thousands of years ago, production practices and cattle care have continued to evolve, improve, and progress. What is emerging, is the ethical concerns of society for how the global dairy industry cares for cattle, our scientific understanding of the impact of production practices on the cattle as well as science that provides a better understanding of the needs of the cattle in our care, and practices that help to best meet those needs. These factors create an opportunity for the industry to make production decisions that benefit the dairy, consumers of dairy products, and most importantly the cattle in our care. Veterinarians, as trusted experts in the care of cattle by both producers and consumers, can provide a key link in opening the discussions on welfare topics with producers and helping to illuminate these animal care opportunities at the production level. This presentation will highlight several of these “emerging” topics and provide discussion of the mutual benefits that can be realized by proactively addressing those areas, in order to help bovine veterinarians successfully facilitate those conversations.

Attitudes of Bavarian bovine veterinarians towards pain and pain management in cattle

BackgroundPain recognition in cattle is difficult, but the control and treatment of pain are essential for animal welfare. Pain evaluation depends on the observer’s experience and opinion, resulting in different...

Development and implementation of a risk assessment and management program for enzootic bovine leukosis in Atlantic Canada

Over the past 30 yr, the prevalence of bovine leukemia virus (BLV) infection has increased in North America, including Atlantic Canada, at both the herd and individual cow levels. This has occurred despite increased awareness of the disease and its deleterious effects and despite implementation of management practices aimed at reducing disease transmission. Our objectives were to identify risk factors associated with the within-herd prevalence of BLV-infected cows by using a risk assessment and management program workbook, as well as to determine the current level of BLV prevalence in the Atlantic Canada region. We hypothesized that previously established risk factors, including management practices associated with calf rearing and fly control, would affect within-herd BLV prevalence. Bulk tank milk (BTM) samples were collected in January and April of 2016 and again during the same months in 2017 and 2018 from all dairy farms shipping milk in the region. Samples were tested with ELISA for levels of anti-BLV antibodies to estimate within-herd prevalence. Regional BLV prevalence at the herd level was 88.39% of dairy herds infected in 2016 and 89.30% in 2018. All dairy farms shipping milk and who had BTM samples collected in 2017 (n = 605) were eligible to participate in the risk assessment and management program questionnaire (RAMP), which was developed and distributed to all bovine veterinarians in Atlantic Canada. One hundred and six RAMP were returned, with representation from all 4 provinces. The RAMP results were combined with the mean BTM ELISA results, and univariable logistic regression followed by multivariable logistic regression was performed to investigate the association between RAMP risk factors and the estimated within-herd BLV prevalence. Factors in the multivariable model significantly associated with the odds of a herd being classified as >25% estimated within-herd prevalence included history of diagnosis of clinical BLV and calves receiving colostrum from cows with unknown BLV status. Differences in within-herd prevalence were not associated with hypodermic needle and injection practices, rectal sleeve practices, or using bulls for natural breeding, based on these 106 dairy farms.

Tips from a physical therapist

Bovine veterinarians must perform very physically challenging tasks and often disregard simple injury prevention techniques due to such things as a lack of knowledge, prioritizing the animals over themselves, and/or not taking the time to consider options. Applying basic principles of body mechanics while performing essential duties could assist with decreasing stress on their bodies and prevent or at least delay the onset of pain or other symptoms. Additional knowledge regarding topics such as good posture, sleep positioning, and basic orthopedic care including stretching could improve the health of the veterinarian, allowing them to continue providing veterinary care while also being able to participate with activities outside of work as desired. A physical therapist spent significant time with a group of bovine veterinarians providing individual examinations and observing job tasks in a wide range of environments. To be indispensable for the long term, bovine veterinarians must become more aware of HUMAN injury prevention and treatment options for themselves.

Explaining earnings variation of bovine veterinarians in private practice

Bovine veterinarians are needed to protect food animal protein supplies, prevent losses due to disease, and protect public health: society needs these services. It is also important that economic incentives exist for, and are understood by, practitioners that serve the food animal industry. Surveys of American Association of Bovine Practitioners members were examined to explain variation in bovine veterinary earnings in private practice. We estimate the systematic variation in earnings due to practitioner characteristics. Results communicate expected earnings levels and variation across bovine veterinarians in private practice based on observable individual attributes and characteristics. These results communicate, in context of the survey questions, what the market for bovine veterinary services values. Bovine veterinarians are compensated more for specializing in a species within the food animal industries and owning their practice. The volume of animals seen is important, and bovine veterinarians should look to practice in areas with large concentrations of animals. Numbers of clients attained are not important, whereas numbers of animals serviced are. Further, gaining experience is more important than additional education or certifications beyond the doctor of veterinary medicine degree. However, there remains a large unexplainable variation in earnings models. This unexplained variation is likely due to unobserved and unmeasured ability/effort effects within each individual and it is thought, but not tested, that higher quality veterinarians earn more. Future salary surveys need to attempt to measure these deep human capital attributes.

On the journey for great diagnostics

Diagnostic medicine is an integral part of bovine medicine and veterinary production animal medicine. These proceedings will discuss the standard of care related to diagnostic medicine. Strategies will be presented for minimizing diagnostic errors in the critical thinking process associated with making diagnostic decisions, as well as in the logistics of sample handling and requesting testing. Common diagnostic errors will be highlighted with suggestions on how to avoid them. Recommended resources for bovine veterinarians are included.

Staying healthy to be indispensable for the long-term

Bovine veterinarians must perform very physically challenging tasks, and often disregard simple injury prevention techniques due to such things as a lack of knowledge, prioritizing the animals over themselves, and/ or not taking the time to consider options. Applying basic principles of body mechanics while performing essential duties could assist with decreasing stress on their bodies and prevent or at least delay the onset of pain or other symptoms. Additional knowledge regarding topics such as good posture, sleep positioning, and basic orthopedic care, including stretching, could improve the health of the veterinarian, allowing them to continue providing veterinary care while also being able to participate with activities outside of work as desired. A physical therapist spent significant time with a group of bovine veterinarians providing individual examinations and observing job tasks in a wide range of environments. To be indispensable for the long-term, bovine veterinarians must become more aware of HUMAN injury prevention and treatment options for themselves.

Barriers to and enablers of implementing antimicrobial stewardship programs in veterinary practices.

BackgroundAntimicrobial stewardship (AMS) programs are yet to be widely implemented in veterinary practice and medical programs are unlikely to be directly applicable to veterinary settings.ObjectiveTo gain an in‐depth understanding of the factors that influence effective AMS in veterinary practices in Australia.MethodsA concurrent explanatory mixed methods design was used. The quantitative phase of the study consisted of an online questionnaire to assess veterinarians’ attitudes to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and antimicrobial use in animals, and the extent to which AMS currently is implemented (knowingly or unknowingly). The qualitative phase used semi‐structured interviews to gain an understanding of the barriers to and enablers of AMS in veterinary practices. Data were collected and entered into NVivo v.11, openly coded and analyzed according to mixed methods data analysis principles.ResultsCompanion animal, equine, and bovine veterinarians participated in the study. Veterinary practices rarely had antimicrobial prescribing policies. The key barriers were a lack of AMS governance structures, client expectations and competition between practices, cost of microbiological testing, and lack of access to education, training and AMS resources. The enablers were concern for the role of veterinary antimicrobial use in development of AMR in humans, a sense of pride in the service provided, and preparedness to change prescribing practices.Conclusion and Clinical ImportanceOur study can guide development and establishment of AMS programs in veterinary practices by defining the major issues that influence the prescribing behavior of veterinarians.

Practical guide for performing a bovine necropsy

Bovine veterinarians are often afforded the opportunity to determine the cause of death based on grossly visible pathological changes alone, without the need for additional diagnostic testing. In some production systems (e.g., feedlot, Stocker, and some cow/calf operations) this opportunity is capitalized upon for almost every mortality. However, for 1 reason or another, some veterinarians are reluctant to consis¬ tently take advantage of performing this procedure. Once the appropriate equipment is employed, and a standardized pro¬ cedure is followed, practitioners will be pleasantly surprised at how efficiently and effectively a postmortem diagnosis can be determined. Furthermore, with the implementation of commonly used technologies, the same principles can be utilized to assist with expanding the geographic area in which diagnoses are made.

Planned response to an FMD outbreak is not what it used to be

The sheer size and structure of livestock operations in the United States, combined with extensive movement between production phases, presents unprecedented foot and mouth disease [FMD) control challenges. The economic impact of an outbreak would be immediate and harsh. The goal of FMD response is to control and eradicate FMD while preserving the US livestock industry, a delicate and precarious balance of priorities. Bovine veterinarians have an opportunity and responsibility to help their clients prepare for a potential FMD outbreak. The voluntary Secure Milk and Secure Beef Supply Plans give veterinarians the tools they need to help their clients implement key business continuity strategies. The biosecurity mitigations and surveillance capabilities will be essential to protect animal health, decrease disease spread, and allow some semblance of business continuity for the livestock industry.

Educating Producers to Systematically Evaluate the Cows they are Culling

Our research will assess the effectiveness of an effort to educate Ontario dairy producers to systematically evaluate the cows they plan to cull. Using a number of health and welfare-related criteria, our team aims to advance decision-making of producers regarding whether culled cows are fit for transport. Our goal is to educate dairy producers to eliminate the shipping of unfit cows, involve their veterinarians in the decision-making process, and to encourage development of standard operating procedures (SOPs) for evaluating cull cows. 
 Currently, Ontario’s dairy industry lacks a systematic evaluation method to aid producers in the decision to remove and transport cows. Moreover, the dairy industry’s proAction initiative requires all farms to have a documented SOP regarding the shipping of cattle. Additionally the veterinary community is interested in being more involved in the SOP development and decision-making process on their client’s farms.
 This pilot research project will run from January to April 2017, inclusive. Twenty bovine veterinarians have been recruited to each enrol 10 of their dairy clients. Veterinarians will provide their clients with a Pre-survey, Cull Cow Evaluation Forms, an information package, and a Post-survey. The Pre-survey is intended to gage the knowledge of dairy producers regarding culling and shipping cattle and assess their current attitudes and practices. The producers will then be asked to complete an Evaluation Form for every cow they cull from the milking herd during the study period. A Post-survey will then be sent to the producers to assess if their attitudes and practices have changed.

Perspective of organic livestock production of bovine veterinarians in the United States

Over the past decade the organic agricultural industry has grown exponentially; dairy production represents its second largest sector. The National Organic Program of the United States limits the list of allowable therapies, therefore the objective of this study was to ask bovine veterinarians regarding their opinion, perception, and challenges while working with organic livestock herds.

Practices for the disbudding and dehorning of dairy calves by veterinarians and dairy producers in Ontario, Canada

Disbudding and dehorning (DD) dairy calves are common management procedures performed on-farm. Appropriate DD practices are important for the welfare of the calf, as well as public perception of the dairy industry. The objective of this study was to build on a 2004 survey of bovine veterinarians and dairy producers in Ontario to determine if DD protocols had changed over the past decade, and to examine factors associated with the adoption of pain-control practices.

Experienced and inexperienced observers achieved relatively high within-observer agreement on video mobility scoring of dairy cows

Assessment of lameness prevalence and severity requires visual evaluation of thelocomotion of a cow. Welfare schemes including locomotion assessments are increasingly being adopted, and more farmers and their veterinarians might implement a locomotion-scoring routine together. However, high within-observer agreement is a prerequisite for obtaining valid mobility scorings, and within-observer agreement cannot be estimated in a barn, because the gait of cows is dynamic and may change between 2 occasions. The objective of this study was to estimate the within-observer agreement according to the observers’ educational background and experience with cattle, based on video recordings with very diverse types of gait. Groups of farmers, bovine veterinarians, first- and fourth-year veterinary students, researchers, and cattle-inexperienced sensory assessors evaluated mobility using a 5-point mobility score system developed specifically for walking cows (n=102 observers). The evaluation sessions were similar for all groups, lasted 75 min, and were organized as follows: introduction, test A, short training session, break, and test B. In total, video recordings of 22 cows were displayed twice in a random order (11 cows in each test × 2 replicates). Data were analyzed applying kappa coefficient, logistic regression, and testing for random effects of observers. The crude estimates of 95% confidence interval for weighted kappa in test A and B ranged, respectively, from 0.76 to 0.80 and 0.70 to 0.75. When adjusting for the fixed effects of video sample and gait scoring preferences, the probability of assigning the same mobility score twice to the same cow varied from 55% (sensory assessors) to 72% (fourth-year veterinary students). The random effect of the individual observers was negligible. That is, in general observers could categorize the mobility characteristics of cows quite well. Observers who preferred to assess the attributes back arch or the overall mobility score (based on uneven gait) had the highest agreement, respectively, 69 or 68%. The training session seemed insufficient to improve agreement. Nonetheless, even novice observers were able to achieve perfect agreement up to 60% of the 22 scorings with merely the experience obtained during the study (introduction and training session). The relatively small differences between groups, together with a high agreement, demonstrate that the new system is easy to follow compared with previously described scoring systems. The mobility score achieves sufficiently high within-observer repeatability to allow between-observer agreement estimates, which are reliable compared with other more-complex scoring systems. Consequently, the new scoring scale seems feasible for on-farm applications as a tool to monitor mobility within and between cows, for communication between farmers and veterinarians with diverse educational background, and for lamenessbenchmarking of herds.

Perceptions of veterinarians and producers concerning Johne’s disease prevalence and control in US beef cow-calf operations

BackgroundEfforts to educate producers and veterinarians in the United States regarding the management, prevention and control of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infection have increased over recent years. While nationwide awareness about MAP infection is improving, current level of awareness among beef producers and veterinarians is largely unknown. This study compares the perceptions of beef producers and veterinarians on the burden of MAP infection in cow-calf herds and on measures to control new infections. Questionnaires were mailed to 989 US beef producers through state Designated Johne’s Coordinators and to 1080 bovine veterinarians belonging to a US nationwide professional association.ResultsTwenty-two percent (34/155) of producers reported having infected animals in their herds. The mean (minimum, median, maximum) prevalence reported by producers was 0.8% (0, 0, 10). Twenty-seven percent (27/100) of producers had at least one clinical animal during the previous year. Compared to the small herds (<50 head), the mean test-positive percentages and estimated prevalences were higher in medium (50–149) and highest in large (≥150) herds. Seedstock herds had a lower prevalence and these producers were more likely to enroll in Johne’s disease (JD) control programs and test their herds. Veterinarians reported a mean overall animal level prevalence in their client herds of 5% (0, 2, 60). Similarly, 26% (0, 10, 100) of client herds had at least one infected animal. Mean percentage of infected cows within infected herds was 9% (0.01, 5, 80). Producers generally performed activities to control MAP transmission more frequently than perceived by veterinarians. Compared to veterinarians’ opinions, producers were less likely to cull cows with signs consistent with JD (P < 0.01), but more likely to test purchased additions (P < 0.01). Testing recommendations by veterinarians (n = 277) for beef cow-calf herds were bacterial culture of feces (3%), PCR (14%), ELISA (35%) and a combination of these tests (47%). Seventy-nine percent of veterinarians recommended a 12-month interval between testing.ConclusionsSeedstock producers who had had JD risk assessments performed on their farms were more supportive of JD control programs and had a correspondingly lower prevalence. It is important to increase educational activities to provide relevant information to veterinarians and producers for better management and control of JD. Educational programs should target larger herds to maximize the impact.

Common health challenges for small-scale sheep and goat herds

A frequent complaint of small-scale sheep and goat producers is the difficulty of finding a veterinarian who is experienced in working with small ruminants. Bovine veterinarians may fill this void because of their extensive experience in nutrition, livestock management practices, routine surgical procedures, and disease control programs. Some of the more common sheep and goat health challenges occurring on small properties include failure to thrive, neonatal contracted tendons, neonatal limb fractures, enterotoxemia, peracute Mannheimia pneumonia, coccidiosis, urolithiasis, pregnancy toxemia, and dystocia. Approaches to treatment of these conditions in sheep and goats that are different from routine treatment in cattle are described.

Are goats really just small cows?

Many bovine veterinarians are hesitant to treat small ruminants, leaving sheep and goat breeders calling horse veterinarians for services. Sheep and goats are food animals and should be treated as such. Veterinarians are generally well respected and have the ability to influence producers with their knowledge. The commercial goat and sheep industries stand to benefit from working relationships with food animal veterinarians.

Improving client profitability by increasing veterinary services in the sheep and goat production cycle

Bovine veterinarians frequently advise cattlemenregarding management practices and herd health proceduresthat improve the economic success and productivityof the cattle enterprise. Small-scale sheep and goatproducers are often unaware of these routine veterinarypractices that would similarly increase their success inlivestock production. Bovine practitioners can increasesmall-scale client profitability by educating them aboutroutine procedures that should be undertaken priorto breeding season, routine parturition, and neonatalcare. Areas where increasing on site veterinary servicesimprove profitability include breeding soundness examination,establishment of the veterinary-client-patientrelationship,use of controlled intravaginal drug releasedevices in sheep, pregnancy diagnosis, recommendationsfor the dry period, treatment of dystocia and creation ofstandard operating protocols for producers. Both bovineveterinarians and sheep and goat producers benefit fromincreased use of veterinary services.

Hazard perception of Dutch farmers and veterinarians related to dairy young stock rearing

A group of 110 dairy farmers and 26 bovine veterinarians participated in a web-based questionnaire using the adaptive conjoint analysis technique to rank their perception regarding several hazards during 6 subsequent periods of the process of dairy young stock rearing. The method applied only involved selected respondents with a high consistency in their answering (correlation >30%). For the ranking, answers were first transformed into a utility score (US) for each hazard. The final ranking for each of the 6 periods was based on the US per hazard separately for farmers and veterinarians. Besides the ranking, the absolute values and the US itself were also compared between farmers and veterinarians to determine any statistically significant differences between the levels of the score despite the ranking. The overall conclusion is that, for almost every designated period, the ranking of the hazards differed between farmers and veterinarians. Only 1 period was observed (period IV, Pregnancy period until 4 weeks before calving) where veterinarians and farmers had the same top 3 ranking of the hazards, namely “Mastitis,” “Abortion,” and “Poor growth rate of the pregnant heifer.” Major differences between farmers and veterinarians were seen during period II (feeding milk until weaning) for the hazard “Diarrhea in older calf,” which was considered less important by farmers compared to veterinarians, and period number III (weaning until insemination) for “Over-condition,” which, again, was seen as the most important hazard by veterinarians, but only ranked as number 5 by farmers. Besides the ranking, significant differences in absolute US values between veterinarians and farmers were seen in “Infection with Johne's disease” (14.5 vs. 7.8), “Diarrhea in newborn calf” (18.2 vs. 12.2), and “Insufficient feed intake” (16.2 vs. 8.4) in period I (colostrum until transition to milk replacer). Lameness represented the most important significant difference in absolute values in period III (weaning until insemination; 6.3 vs. 14.3), which was again significant in period V (4 wks before calving until calving; 7.4 vs. 12.1). The outcome of this study shows that hazard perception of veterinarians and farmers differs for most rearing periods (in ranking and absolute values). The outcome of this study can be used for 2 purposes: first, to improve communication between farmers and their consulting veterinarian about hazards and hazard perception in young stock rearing; and second, the US scores can be used to select top priority hazards which should at least be integrated into management advisory programs to improve dairy young stock rearing.

Balling gun-induced trauma in cattle: clinical presentation, diagnosis and prevention

Pharyngeal trauma in cattle can occur during the administration of oral medication using a balling gun. The number of cases of severe complications due to bolus application that have been...