Case Study A Paragon Vet Group client’s herd had excellent fertility, a very low level of abortion, good biosecurity, and rarely bought in animals. However, there must have been a low level of Neospora on the farm.
Minimising economic losses centres around prevention and control. The following guidelines are recommended to help control Neospora on farm. Firstly, maintain a high level of hygiene around the calving area. Dispose of any placentas, foetuses and still born calves promptly. In other words, remove any source of infection fast. Secondly, when dogs do manage to eat any infected placenta or foetal material they can then go on to shed Neospora eggs. Therefore, ensure that dogs do not have access to cattle feed stuffs, bedding or water. And thirdly, try to identify all seropositive cows. Vertical transmission is the main route of infection and these cows will produce the next generation of infected calves. Culling all positive cows is unlikely to be economical, but these animals should be bulled to beef. Only breeding replacements from uninfl ected/seronegative cows is advised.
The farm recently acquired a new young farm dog which must have gained access to some afterbirth from an infected calving. The pup then became infected and in turn infective and, probably through defaecating somewhere near the cattle feed, we suspect one load of TMR was contaminated. This batch of feed was then fed to a group of mid to late lactation cattle of which more than half aborted over a two-week period. This was a ‘perfect storm’ example of Neos- pora and underlines the need to take great care in keeping all feed source free of infec- tive material whenever possible.
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www.dairyelite.com Genetic Advancement. Made Local. 102 THE JOURNAL FEBRUARY 2015
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