Communication helps keep neighboring herds safe and healthy.
Todd Tedrow warns livestock producers and ranchers about a number of diseases that either are endemic or may emerge to impact the health of their animals, but he stresses that producers can help themselves to stave off herd health issues.
“I think we could pay more attention to biosecurity,” says Tedrow, a staff veterinarian with the South Dakota Animal Industry Board, “and that would be a tremendous help for our cattle, sheep and poultry producers. With everything these producers are dealing with, biosecurity sometimes takes a backseat. The swine industry has widely adopted sound biosecurity practices, but there’s always room for improvement.”
He sees biosecurity measures as going a long way in preventing the introduction of diseases. Tedrow says his move from private practice to working for the animal board opened his eyes to the importance of biosecurity, specifically when dealing with cases of trichomoniasis, a disease that is transmitted between cows and bulls during breeding and can result in early-term abortions.
“You talk to those producers whose herds have been infected, and you ask where they think they got it. ‘Well, my neighbor brings these cattle on and off, and they get comingled with mine,’ Tedrow says. “And then I say, ‘Well, wait, your cattle were comingled with some that you know nothing about?’
“Then I ask, ‘Well, who is responsible for maintaining the fence?’
“‘Well, that’s not my problem; it’s their fences.'”
It does become a problem for producers, Tedrow says, when they have “millions of dollars invested in their cow herd, and there’s a potential disease risk in the next pasture.” He advises producers to work with their neighbors to fix fences, so commingling doesn’t occur.
Another approach may be to communicate with neighbors to determine when cattle will be in their pasture and use that information to decide on the best time to place your cattle in the pasture that abuts theirs.
“Maybe you can move your cows to a different pasture and have a buffer zone” between the two sets of cattle, he says. “It’s just another way to look at biosecurity that will effectively minimize risk of disease spread.”
To protect your livestock from disease, Tedrow says a good place to start is developing or strengthening a good working relationship with a private veterinarian, “because they can help you with setting up a biosecurity program, as well as a herd health program.”
Also, be aware of diseases currently in your area, Tedrow says, as well as diseases that may be prevalent in the area from where your stock originate. “It helps to work with reputable sources when looking for replacement cattle, or any replacement livestock,” he says.
This may not be at the top of every producer’s to-do list, but setting up a parasite control program with your veterinarian is recommended, Tedrow says. “Some of that too is pasture management, because that is where they pick them [parasites] up,” he says.
Tedrow advises producers watch for these diseases in various livestock:
Cattle. “If we’re talking about the cattle industry, Johne’s disease — that’s a big one that causes unseen production losses,” he says.
Also on his radar is bovine viral diarrhea virus, as well as the “grab bag” of bovine respiratory diseases, “which is a bunch of different diseases altogether,” he says.
BVD can be a production robber, “and you might not even see it,” he says. “You get calves that get BVD, and they just don’t perform like they should. So instead of selling a healthy 550-pound calf, you end up selling a 400-pounder,” he says. “So you put all those resources into that cow, feeding her all year long, growing her all that time, and then you don’t get the optimum production on the other end.”
Sheep. Ovine progressive pneumonia can cause production losses in a flock. Tedrow says producers may not even see clinical signs of the disease.
Just as in beef and dairy cattle, Johne’s disease can also affect small ruminants.
Swine. Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome has pestered the swine industry for quite some time, “and those swine folks are really digging into that,” he says. “Again, going back to re-evaluating biosecurity practices to figure out how to keep it out, because that’s one disease syndrome that appears to crack that biosecurity code.”
South Dakota’s hog producers learned the importance of strict biosecurity when porcine epidemic diarrhea virus hit the industry in 2013, much as the state’s poultry industry learned from the outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza in 2015.
According to Tedrow, the other livestock industries fortunately have not yet had to deal with a highly contagious disease outbreak “that highlights the usefulness of biosecurity.”
Tedrow says he can’t “beat the biosecurity drum” enough, as well as the importance of a relationship with a veterinarian to prevent disease and the spread of disease, but there’s another piece that cannot be overlooked — nutrition.
“You can’t do enough nutritional-wise to get the most production out of your critters. We’ve learned that from the dairy industry. They have well established the need for good nutrition,” he says.
