Tackling Anaplaz
by Teres Lambert, for the Red Angus Magazine Buzzards circling in different areas of a large pasture aren’t a sight any cattle producer wants to see. But that is what commercial cowman Rick Warner, Throckmorton, Texas, faced. “I have a fall-calving set of cows that I had checked at weaning July 1 and left on their own until checking them at calving. We run cows in big country, and I was busy farming,” Warner said. “When I nally got around to checking the herd at calving, I was a few head of cattle short—the reason for the buzzards a-circling.” Warner’s veterinarian pulled blood on suspects. Test results conrmed anaplasmosis. While beef producers in the South and Southeast typically have anaplasmosis on their radar, since the disease is endemic to that area, this infectious disease has been found within all continental states. And it is taking a chunk from the bottom lines of infected herds. Researchers estimate that the introduction of anaplasmosis into a previously naïve herd can result in a 3.6% reduction in calf crop, a 30% increase
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in cull rate and a 30% mortality rate in clinically infected adult cattle. This amounts to approximately $400 per animal – that’s approximately a $1 billion loss to the industry per year.
“It doesn’t take much blood on a needle – or other appliance – from a positive animal to be injected into a negative animal.” “In one particular pasture I lost 11 cows and 15 pregnancies,” Warner stated. “I had preg-checked and knew those females were pregnant, but they came up dry due to anaplaz. That was costly.” The pathogen that causes anaplasmosis, Anaplasma marginale, is introduced into an animal’s bloodstream by blood transfer. In the past eight or so years, researchers have found
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more than 100 strains of the pathogen across the country – and individual animals have been known to carry more than one A. marginale strain at a time. While anaplasmosis was a key concern among cattle producers in the 1960s and 1970s, it entered the spotlight again within the past 10 years. Dr. Greg Hanzilcek, clinical associate professor, Kansas State University Diagnostic Laboratory, Manhattan, Kansas, said, “More and more producers are talking about anaplasmosis now because they are understanding what it is and are looking for it. And there is more accurate testing for the disease.” Hanzilacek notes that cattle movement is believed to be the reason for anaplasmosis reappearing and spreading. Texas and Oklahoma went through a major drought in 20102012, and cattle in these anaplasmosis-endemic states were moved to other states. “Once anaplasmosis-positive animals are in a herd, the disease can spread quite quickly,” Hanzilacek said.
