Paragon Farm Newsletter Summer/Autumn 2016

ISSUE 57 Summer/Autumn 2016

Livestock www.paragonvet.com

NEWS

Inside this issue: Sheep Discussion Group Metacam & Fertility Kexxtone Heifer genomic testing BVDFree England ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY

Summer/Autumn2016

Staff news Karen McNeil We are delighted to welcome Karen McNeil to Paragon as a practice co-ordinator, based at Dalston, working alongside Julie Crawford. Karen has a lifelong background around farming, most recently relief milking on local dairy farms. Before taking time out of work to have children she worked as administrator for an agricultural/plant machinery dealer. In her spare time she is kept busy with her 2 children and their 8 month old Labradoodle and enjoys attending agricultural shows and auctions as she has a keen interest in dairy cattle and horses and hopes to be able to return to horse riding in the near future.

Cheryl Watson We are sad to see Cheryl leave Paragon after 8 years with us. Cheryl has been a great colleague in her role as farm administrator and latterly as our farm suitably qualified person (SQP). We wish her all the very best in her family farming business and thank her for developing the farm VPS (wormers, flukicides, fly control and some vaccines) product sales within Paragon.

Dalston Show Saturday 13th August 2016

We are looking forward to another great day this year at Dalston Show.

Please come and see the farm team at the Paragon stand and join us for some refreshments!

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn2016

Sheep Discussion Group

We are aiming to start a sheep discussion group this Autumn. This will be an opportunity to meet regularly, and discuss various seasonal topics with fellow sheep farmers. The meetings will be structured with lots of practical/ hands-on opportunities.

If you’re interested in knowing more or would like to be involved please contact Caroline Abbott on 07785617221.

New Dairy Product launched – Imrestor Imrestor is the first product of its kind available to use in dairy cows. It isn’t an antibiotic or a vaccine but it stimulates the production and maturation of neutrophils, a type of white blood cell involved in fighting infections. In fact the human equivalent of Imrestor is used in some cancer patients to boost their immune systems as they undergo chemotherapy.

All cows undergo a dip in their immunity around calving and this can predispose them to diseases such as retained cleansings, metritis and mastitis in freshly calved cows. Imrestor works by boosting the cow’s immune system at a time when she needs help the most.

Administration involves an injection approximately 7 days before calving and then a second injection on the day she calves.

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016

Fertility boosted with use of Metacam for mastitis

By Bruce Richards We all know that a cow that has a case of mastitis has reduced fertility, whether the mastitis case occurs before or after insemination. Easy to picture in a sick cow with a high temperature and off her feed; however had you considered that even mild to moderate cases of mastitis also have negative effects on reproduction?

Recent work has shown that mild cases of mastitis or even raised somatic cell counts result in reduction in fertility. Infertility or failure to conceive are the major causes of culling in dairy cows, when times are tight looking at ways to reduce these losses is essential. Clearly the focus must be on preventing mastitis, but when it cannot be avoided how can we minimise the impact it has on fertility?

In 2009 studies showed that using Metacam alongside antibiotic treatment for mastitis reduced culling rates. It was suggested that a big part of this might be linked to improved fertility. Recently a new study has been published looking in detail at the reproductive performance of cows that suffer a case of mastitis and asking whether using Metacam, as part of your mastitis treatment protocol, can really make a difference to fertility?

The UK and European study looked at over 500 cows with mild to moderate mastitis.

Cows were assigned to one of two treatment groups. All cows received two to four tubes of intramammary antibiotic therapy (cefalexin and kanamycin) but one group also received Metacam whereas the other received a placebo. After this treatment, they were then followed to gather all their fertility data such as services and pregnancy diagnosis through to if they were culled in that lactation. Milk samples were also taken before and after treatment to assess bacteriological cure rates.

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016 Results showed that cows with mastitis that were given Metacam along with antibiotic therapy had significantly improved fertility performance compared to the cows that were given the placebo and antibiotic therapy.

In particular:  The percentage of cows conceiving to their first service (31% vs 21%)  The number of AI’s required to achieve conception (2.43 vs 2.92)  Percentage of cows pregnant by 120 days after calving (40% vs 31%) It was also seen that the cows treated with Metacam had a higher bacteriological cure rate that those that received the placebo (66% vs 50%).This provides further evidence that using Metacam alongside antibiotic treatment of mastitis can bring real economic and welfare benefits. Metacam has already been shown to reduce culling rates and somatic cell counts but now we know that it also improves the reproductive performance in cows that have mastitis, and this is due to further transform the way we treat mild to moderate cases of mastitis.

Borderway Agri-Expo Borderway Agri-Expo returns for the tenth year on Friday, 28th October.

Last year the event saw 840 cattle & sheep compete and 12,000 spectators attend.

We will be at the event again this year so please come along and visit our stand!

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016

Cumbria Calf Club—Yorkshire Farm Trip

Last week we held our second ‘Cumbria Calf Club’ meeting for those farmers that are involved with calf monitoring and the Calf Tracker campaign.

The meeting involved a day over in Yorkshire visiting Messrs Spence, Low Field Farm, Brompton, Northallerton a former Gold Cup winner and also to The Yorkshire Wagyu Company (where we sampled Wagyu pie!) who have a resident farm vet and monitor calf health. It was a really enjoyable day with plenty to see and discuss and our thanks go to our hosts who took the time to show us around their farms!

The ‘Cumbria Calf Club’ is open to anyone who is interested in calf management and getting the best from their calves.

Please speak with the farm vets if you are interest in getting involved!

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016

Adverse reactions to Kexxtone in other species

By Anne Abbs The use of Kexxtone boluses has been a great help on many farms in managing cows at risk of ketosis e.g. long dry period, carrying twins, helping to reduce the incidence of clinical ketosis and displaced abomasums after calving.

Elanco have recently strengthened some of the warnings about potential problems in species other than cattle. The active ingredient in the boluses (monensin) is toxic to dogs, horses and other equines (e.g. donkeys) and guinea fowl. Given the tendency for some cows to regurgitate boluses, sometimes a while after administration, it is worth thinking about potential contact between treated dry and newly calved cows and these species.

Whilst it is relatively easy to prevent co-grazing with your own horse Elanco advise that you should also consider whether other animals could have access to fields with treated animals in e.g. are the dry cows grazing fields with public footpaths regularly used by dog walkers.

Monensin exposure in dogs causes muscular and neurological problems and is not uncommonly fatal. To date most cases have involved farm dogs chewing discarded or regurgitated boluses, so any spotted in fields or around the yard should be removed promptly.

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016

Heifer genomic testing with Clarifide

By Dan Griffiths We are delighted to be able to offer clients genomic analysis of their heifers.

The cost of rearing heifers is approximately ÂŁ1800 or ÂŁ2.30/day and it is estimated that around 20-25% of heifer replacements have the same or poorer genetics than the cows they replace. These raise the question of whether any given heifer calf is worthy of entering the milking herd and demonstrate the need for a herd heifer selection programme to maximise herd genetic improvement. To achieve this, 3 key questions need to be answered: 1.

Do I want this heifer in my herd? Using genomic screening of heifers enables decision making at an early stage of life, e.g. a month of age, and therefore minimises the unnecessary costs associated with rearing replacements with poorer genetics.

2.

How many progeny do I want from her? Increasing the selection intensity on heifers carrying favourable traits will lead to faster herd genetic improvements. This can only be done through SNP chip testing the DNA in all heifers and making informed decisions with the known outcomes.

3.

Who do I want to breed her to? Genomic heifer evaluations allow for the appropriate economic choice between beef/ conventional/sexed semen as well as the use of computerised mating programs, embryo transfer and IVF.

The picture above shows a SNP chip that enables analysis of 50,000 parts of a heifer’s DNA

Analysing the DNA of heifers in a herd using genomic SNP chip screening can typically improve the reliability of the trait result by 2-3 fold and increase the rate of genetic gain by 168% compared to using parent average alone. Paragon are one of only a handful of veterinary practices across the country able to offer this service and through a collaboration with 2 other XL practices we can provide a UK and US proof, trait ranking, report analysis, return on investment calculations and full technical support to help you get the most out of your herd investment.

We will be holding a farmer meeting shortly on genomics and the Clarifide package. Those that are interested in coming along should contact Dan at the surgery .

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016

ZOLVIX – Fight Resistance Now

By Caroline Abbott There is a need to act now by integrating ZOLVIX into worming programs to fight wormer resistance and help protect traditional classes of drench.

Resistance to gastro-intestinal worms has been recognised for some time, with many farms affected by worm populations that are resistant to traditional drenches – the white (benzimidazoles or 1-BZ), yellow (levamisoles or 2-LM) and clear (macrocyclic lactones or 3-ML) wormers. Indeed, recent studies have shown that worms resistant to the 3-ML group, including moxidectin and ivermectin based products are on the increase. Resistance stops the drench working effectively, so resistant worms are left behind.

ZOLVIX kills all economically significant gastro-intestinal worms, even resistant strains. By eliminating worms resistant to other classes of drench, ZOLVIX will enhance the performance of entire drench programmes and help preserve the efficacy of other drenches (i.e. white, yellow and clear drenches). ZOLVIX promotes flock health, productivity and profitability.

When is ZOLVIX recommended? 

Use in lambs as a break dose in the middle to the end of the lambs’ grazing season. ZOLVIX is effective against all economically significant gut roundworms, including resistant worms not killed by earlier doses of traditional wormers, therefore aiding growth, maximising productivity and helping to reduce future resistance problems by reducing pasture contamination with resistant worm eggs. To maximise the benefit to the other wormer groups, it is essential that ZOLVIX is incorporated now and not reserved for some time in the future when high levels of resistance are likely to be present.



ZOLVIX should also be used as a quarantine dose to clean out all incoming stock by removing the hidden burden of resistant worms. All incoming stock including replacements, stock returning from “tack” or off-farm grazing, and new rams should be treated. Incoming stock can look perfectly healthy but carry the seed stock of future resistant worm populations, or even new worm species such as Haemonchus contortus which is spreading North and becoming more common.

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016

Autumn – Products & offers Eprecis Eprecis contains the active ingredient Eprinomectin which is the same as in the products Eprinex and Eprizero. One advantage of Eprecis is that it is available in an injectable form. This allows for more accurate dosing as well as preventing toxicity issues which can occur when cattle lick pour on products off each other’s backs! The injectable version is also a good option when dosing for flies at the same time!

A 600kg animal dose works out to be less than £3 per animal!

Eprizero 6L promo pack with free gun available – Treats 100 cows Zero milk withdrawal 10 days meat withdrawal ** FREE bulk milk testing is now available to check your herd for Ostertagia (gut worm) and Dictyocaulus (lungworm) ** Please ask the farm vets for details

Sheep abortion vaccines We are currently trying to secure supplies of Toxovax and Cevac Chlamydia abortion vaccine for the upcoming breeding season. There have been supply issues in the past so we are trying to get our supplies secured so if you can give us an estimation of numbers of doses that you will require then we can get orders in.

Call the practice to order or if you have any further queries contact Philip Wilkinson on 07734388892

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Summer/Autumn 2016

BVDFree England Scheme

By Jemma Reed You may have noticed our push on promoting BVD awareness whether it is on our display at the farm reception, on Facebook, on Twitter or Rob Simmons article in The Herald. This has been instigated by the new BVDFree England Scheme which we would encourage you all to get involved with so here is a bit more information on what it is all about.

What is BVD? Bovine Viral Diarrhoea or BVD is a highly contagious viral disease of cattle. It is one of the biggest disease issues facing the UK cattle industry. BVD has been estimated to cost between £13 and £31 per affected cow. The national cost could be as high as £61M per year.

What is the BVDFree Scheme?

BVDFree England is an industry-led scheme designed to eliminate BVD virus from all cattle herds in the country by 2022.

It will develop a national database, storing individual and herd test results for scheme members. BVDFree is based on achieving the elimination of BVD through identification and removal of animals persistently infected (PIs) with BVD. The BVDFree Scheme will be run on a voluntary basis until most of the cattle industry is covered by the Scheme, when a solid case can be presented to the Government for collaboration on the introduction of compulsory measures.

BVDFree England will work in cooperation with the cattle industries in Scotland, Wales, Ireland and Northern Ireland to eradicate BVD from the islands of Great Britain and Ireland.

For further details on BVD and how to register for the BVDFree England Scheme look at the website www.bvdfree.org.uk or please discuss this with any of the farm vets.

LIVESTOCK NEWS

Congratulations!!

Congratulations to everyone at Evening Holsteins for their recent Supreme Dairy Champion win at Penrith Show.

We are keen to share your news so please let us know if you have competition success stories and photos to share.

Facebook Keep up to date with our latest news and what our farm vets are getting up to by visiting our page on Facebook or Twitter. Your contributions are most welcome and we'd love to see your pictures out on the farm. We will occasionally run competitions on our page so keep an eye out! www.facebook.com/ParagonVets.Farm @ParagonFarmVets

Contact us: Paragon Veterinary Group

Townhead Veterinary Centre

Carlisle House, Townhead Road Dalston, Carlisle, CA5 7JF Tel: (01228) 710208 vets@paragonvet.com

Newbiggin, Stainton, Penrith, CA11 0HT Tel: (01768) 483789 townhead@paragonvet.com