ISSUE 63 Summer/Autumn 2018
Livestock www.paragonvet.com
NEWS
Inside this issue: Staff News Red Tractor Assurance Foot Rot/Foul Study BVD Vaccination Trial ACHIEVING EXCELLENCE IN HEALTH AND PRODUCTIVITY
Summer/Autumn 2018
Staff news Paul Kirkwood We are pleased to welcome Paul to the farm team. Paul graduated from Nottingham University this year and is looking forward to getting stuck into farm practice. He is a dairy farmers son from Northern Ireland. Outside of work he is a keen football and rugby fan alongside exploring the outdoors. He is looking forward to meeting you all.
IVF OPEN DAY By Dan Griffiths On the 3rd July Paragon Advanced Breeding held an Open Day at the Newbiggin practice. 24 people attended including farmers, breeding technicians and vets from neighbouring practices. The event included:
An overview of IVF by David Black. He focussed on the genetic gain that is achievable using IVF, whereby one donor can be cycled every fortnight, realistically achieving a 50 fold amplification of her genetics in a year.
An Ovum Pick-Up (OPU) demonstration by Rob Simmons. Attendees were able to watch a live OPU demo and experience the 300C heat that collections take place in at our new OPU facilities.
An opportunity to search for collected oocytes from the OPU demonstration with Charlotte Morphet using our in house laboratory equipment.
A herd genomic Clarifide report case study by Dan Griffiths. The bespoke herd report allows heifers to be ranked based on the valued traits for that farm and top end heifers can then be identified as IVF candidates.
The event was sponsored by Vetoquinol and attending farmers received a discounted IVF voucher to cycle 3 animals. Anyone who would like to attend a future open day or would like more information about IVF in cattle should contact Jenny Turner at Newbiggin on 01768 483789. LIVESTOCK NEWS
Summer/Autumn 2018
Beef and Sheep Red Tractor Farm Assurance As you may already be aware from the 1st of June 2018 it is ‘compulsory for all Red Tractor beef and lamb members to have a written annual livestock health and performance review undertaken by their vet’. We at Paragon would like to help our farm assured clients by ensuring these health reviews are done in good time prior to an inspection. We would also like to enable our farmers to get the most out of these discussions through providing up to date advice for your herd or flock. If you have not already heard from us you can expect a phone call from us asking if:
You are a member of a Red Tractor farm assurance scheme
When your inspection is due so that we can get you booked in as necessary.
If you have not heard from us but would like to have a vet health review please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Please note we will not be able to provide signed health reviews without sufficient notice and so would encourage all our farm assured clients to make contact with us well in advance of an inspection. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have this in place for your inspection.
Sheep abortion vaccines We are currently trying to secure supplies of Toxovax and Cevac Chlamydia abortion vaccine for the upcoming breeding season. Once again there are supply issues with Enzootic vaccine and we are trying to get our supplies secured so if you can give us an estimation of the 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 LIVESTOCK NEWS
Summer/Autumn 2018
Foot Rot / Foul in the Foot study By Bruce Richards We have been asked to collect bacterial cultures from foot rot / “fouls” cases in cattle. Where cases are appropriate, meet the criteria and are selected for sampling, the client will be reimbursed £25 for their contribution.
Cases can be from any age of animal showing classical signs (see below)
A copy of relevant medicine records will be needed when swabs are collected and submitted with the sample.
The foot will need to be safely lifted so the vet can examine, clean and swab the lesion.
If you do think you have an eligible case of foot rot we would be grateful if you could consider this study. We will endeavour to attend if possible (at no cost to you) and collect the sample - as much pre-warning will be appreciated as we do not want to un-necessarily delay treatment and compromise welfare
The animal must not have had any antibiotics or passed through any foot bath contains any chemical in the previous 3 weeks. Cases will need to be sampled pretreatment.
The disease is characterised by the following signs:
Usually begins at the back of the interdigital space, spreads onto the bulbs of the heels, and eventually involves the entire interdigital space;
Usually remain confined to the interdigital skin, with swelling and rotting flesh and a characteristic foul smell
Large Animal Drug Orders Please can we ask that as much notice as possible is given when requesting drug orders. For cash account orders 24hrs notice is preferred. This will ensure that we can order from the wholesaler and have all of your order ready when you collect it. We do understand on occasion you may need certain items sooner. We can provide you with a form listing the majority of your drugs so that you can fax or email it through to save time. If you have any queries regarding this then please ask at dispensary. LIVESTOCK NEWS
Summer/Autumn 2018
BVD - Stamp It OUT DEFRA has made available ÂŁ5.7 million of funding to raise the profile of BVD control amongst cattle keepers in England. The project has the aim of engaging 50% of the breeding herd (both dairy and beef) in England in BVD control over the next 2.5 years. This project is free to cattle farmers in England. Paragon have enrolled to be a veterinary provider of this scheme. We are able to provide enrolling farmers with 2 BVD focused meetings, a bespoke BVD action plan and free BVD testing.
Vaccination Trial Rotavec CoronaTM is a scour vaccine used during the dry period to provide antibodies to the calf through the dam’s colostrum. It has been the market leading calf scour vaccine and many of our herds have seen big improvements in calf health after using the vaccine. Recently a new calf scour vaccine called Bovigen ScourTM has been launched which is very similar to Rotavec CoronaTM. During Spring 2018 we have been trialling the two vaccines on a couple of our dairy farms. The results have been very promising and daily live weight gains of calves were not significantly different between the two vaccine groups, in fact on average the Bovigen ScourTM vaccinated group grew slightly faster at 0.74kg/day compared to 0.71kg/day in the Rotavec CoronaTM group. Following this successful trial we will now be stocking both vaccines. If you have any questions please discuss with one of the vets. Daily Live Weight Gain (kg/day)
LIVESTOCK NEWS
Summer/Autumn 2018
Appropriate Anthelmintic Use in Cattle By Shona Mouncey It is a well-known fact that parasitic gastroenteritis (PGE) can have significant negative effects on production, but how do you decide the best way to control worms on your farm? There are several factors which need to be taken into consideration when deciding on a treatment strategy, but a few of the main ones are who, when and with what? The animals at highest risk are those in their first grazing season. These animals are naïve as they have had no exposure to worms until turned out to pasture. In the case of Autumn born beef calves or weaned dairy calves, grass intake is going to be high as soon as they are turned out. This means that as soon as the pasture contamination rises, these animals will be ingesting significant levels of infective larvae. In the case of Spring born suckler calves, milk constitutes the main diet until late summer and so it is their second grazing season which must be considered the highest risk for these animals. Worming of first season grazers at housing is important to remove any inhibited larvae which can lead to disease when they emerge in spring. Whilst an acquired immunity should develop in adults, this takes two full grazing seasons and requires repeated exposure to boost this natural immunity, otherwise adults can be at risk of disease and can contribute to pasture contamination. Timing is crucial for effective control. Too early and the treatment will have minimal effect if the worm population is low, resulting on poor return on investment of time and money. Too late and the damage is already done – when clinical signs of PGE are noticed, the subclinical losses on growth rates and productivity are likely to be widespread within the affected group. Faecal egg counts are a useful tool, and to decide if treatment is necessary or not the results should be used alongside other information, which includes the history of the farm and pasture, daily live-weight gains and weather conditions. There are 3 groups of anthelmintics for cattle, with injectables, drenches, pour on and boluses all being available. Whichever drug and method of administration is used, there are some guidelines which should be followed to ensure effective treatment:
Dose to the heaviest in the group Calibrate drenching gun/pour on applicator/syringe to ensure accurate dose administered Appropriate dosing technique to ensure administered correctly LIVESTOCK NEWS
Summer/Autumn 2018
Ooo that looks tasty!!! By Anne Abbs With the recent dry weather it is likely that stock will be looking for a fresh bite from places that they wouldn’t normally consider like dyke backs, and breaking out to help themselves to greener pastures (or woods, marshes etc). This can expose them to toxic plants and even normally unpalatable plants may be consumed. 3 common plants that are encountered are – Bracken Bracken occurs in wood margins and on open moor/heathland. Symptoms of poisoning are often not seen for days/weeks after ingestion. Bracken causes a bleeding syndrome in adult cattle with a high temperature, bloody urine and bloody scour. In less acute cases symptoms are often only noticed when the animal has lost a significant amount of blood, sometimes from internal bleeding which isn’t apparent, and she gets a high temperature, milk drop and becomes wobbly. Ragwort Fresh ragwort is very bitter and animals don’t normally eat it unless they have no other feed. Again symptoms don’t occur until some time after ingestion. Ragwort damages the liver and causes depression, emaciation, jaundice and nervous symptoms. There is no cure as the liver is permanently damaged. St John’s Wort There are several species of St John’s Wort that all look very similar. Chemicals in the leaves migrate to the animal’s skin and sensitise the skin to light. This is particularly apparent on the light areas of an animal, so a Holstein will develop ‘sunburn’ on the white areas whereas pale coloured animals will be affected over their whole body. Excessive consumption can also lead to chronic problems with red blood cell destruction. Unlike the other 2 plants, some treatment of affected animals is possible, in particular they need to be kept inside as the sun can cause skin problems even when the day is cloudy. LIVESTOCK NEWS
Upcoming events Paragon Flock Health Club Sheep Meeting Thursday 9th August 2pm Lamb Selection event by kind permission of John Rowland (Newton Rigg) at The National Centre for the Uplands at Low Beckside, Mungrisdale, Penrith, Cumbria, CA11 0XR
Dalston Show - Saturday 11th August 2018 We are looking forward to another great day this year at Dalston Show. Please come and join the farm team at the Paragon stand for some refreshments!
AI Course—20th - 22nd August 2018 Borderway Agri-Expo - 2nd November 2018
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