June Newsletter 2010

Farm First Newsletter July 2010
Bleeding Calf Syndrome (Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia)
This is a new disease which is characterised by uncontrollable bleeding from the skin, nose and other areas, typically affecting young calves less than 4 weeks of age. Often the first sign seen is at tagging when the calf will not stop bleeding from the insertion hole. Almost all affected animals will die. The disease is due to damage to the bone marrow, which is responsible for producing the platelets in the blood which are essential for clotting.
The reason for the bone marrow damage is not known, however a possible link between vaccination of dams with Pregsure BVD and the birth of affected calves has been identified in Germany. Pfizer has voluntarily withdrawn the product from the market, but it should be stressed that no link between the vaccine and the disease has been proven, and other BVD vaccines such as Bovilis BVD are not under suspicion. The VLA would like all suspected cases to be reported, as there are ongoing investigations into the possible cause. If you are suspicious that you have a case please contact the surgery.
Emergency on Farm Slaughter
There are strict limits as to which animals fit the criteria for an emergency on-farm slaughter, the guidelines state: ‘An otherwise healthy animal must have suffered an accident that prevented its transport to the slaughterhouse for welfare reasons’.

Basically this really limits the injury to a fracture or dislocation, which requires immediate veterinary attention for welfare reasons. For this reason we must see the animal as soon as possible after injury. Animals which have been injured for several days, or suffering from chronic conditions such as lameness are not eligible.

The statutory withdrawal periods for any veterinary medicine administered must be observed for any animal slaughtered for human consumption. A declaration is required stating that all withdrawal periods for the animal have been observed. A veterinary surgeon must be present before slaughter to perform an inspection. The vet is required to declare the animal is fit for consumption, the reason for slaughter, and any treatment administered. The vet is also required to declare the date and time of slaughter, therefore he/she must be in attendance at the time of slaughter.

The farmer must contact the abattoir to confirm they will accept an emergency slaughter; however they are under no obligation to do so. The carcase must be clean, transported hygienically and arrive at the abattoir within 2 hours of slaughter.


Fly control


One of the drawbacks of the fine weather we’re currently enjoying has been a surge in the number of flies. As well as being a nuisance through biting, flies also act as a source of infection, most notably in summer mastitis but also for other diseases such as New Forest eye.

Butox Swish is probably the best product available to control flies in cows, giving protection for 8-10 weeks. For dairy cows it has a zero milk withdrawal. Stockholm tar also works well when applied directly to the udder but is very messy and needs to be reapplied every 2 weeks.


A new option available is the use biological fly control using fly parasites which are native to this country. These parasites are distributed in fly breeding areas around the farm-yard such as loose housing areas and slurry lagoons. The parasites hatch and kill the adult flies, then lay further eggs which repeat the cycle. More details on biological fly control are available on the Clover website at www.flymanagement.co.uk or www.clovergroup.eu or telephone the Clover Group at 0800 612 5289.

Identification of Cheques

A request from the girls in the office: please ensure when posting in a cheque to pay a bill that you identify it by writing your name and the farm name on the back. Otherwise the girls have to trawl though a long list of surnames to try and identify who it’s from - quite a list if your surname is Jones! The girls would also like the cheque made out to Nat, Tracy or Deb, not sure how Rob will feel about that one though. (Do they think I’m that dull-Rob)

New Streamline Machine

Farm First are slowly moving into the modern age and have invested in a Streamline machine. We should have it up and running in the next few weeks (as soon as Nat has read the instructions) and so soon will be able to take payments via card. Please note that there will be a small charge for the use of credit card(1% of invoice), debit card use will be free of charge.

Enzootic Abortion Vaccine

For those of you that have had enzootic abortion problems diagnosed in your sheep in the past, remember that vaccination is a very good method of controlling losses from this disease. Despite recent reports that the vaccinal strain has been found in some abortion samples, we would still strongly recommend that farmers with this problem vaccinate. Sheep owners in this area with the problem who have vaccinated in the past have repeatedly confirmed that the vaccine works very well. Ewe lambs kept for breeding can be given the vaccine from 5 months of age. For shearlings and older ewes the vaccine should be given from 4 months prior to mating. Do not vaccinate less than 4 weeks prior to mating-early lambing flocks need to be thinking about it now. Do not vaccinate pregnant ewes (the vaccine that we used to be able to give to pregnant ewes is now no longer available). Most ewes are vaccinated once as ewe lambs or shearlings, the vaccine then covers them for life in most circumstances. Often people slowly build up a vaccinated flock by just doing their replacements every year. Cost is about £2.00/ewe, discounts will be given for large orders. Please contact the surgery if you wish to discuss

Toxovax Vaccine

Please note there are supply problems with this vaccine this year. The practice has only been allocated 100 doses for the remainder of the year. If you normally use this vaccine for your ewes please contact us as soon as possible, the available vaccine will be allocated on a first come first served basis.

From Rob and his team at Farm First Vets.

MAY NEWSLETTER 2010


Buffer Feeding Dairy Cows at Turnout

Dairy cows at turnout often suffer energy shortages, especially the early lactation animals and higher yielders. This is because grazed grass will support at best about 25 litres of milk plus maintenance a day. Milk yields will often be maintained at higher levels than this because of the “driving force" of the high protein in pasture. If, in addition, you cut the cake in the parlour at turnout, the cows may struggle to meet their energy needs, lose weight and go on to suffer fertility problems. This energy issue is often reflected in the energy (milk proteins) vs milk-yield graphs we get from milk-recording herds at this time of year.
What should you use? Nutritionally and palatability-wise, maize silage, molasses (with added magnesium for staggers), wheat and sugar beet pulp are probably the best. Some people use whole-crop cereals or citrus pulp. Brewers’ grains don’t seem to be so good as they seem to drop butterfat levels in the milk which can be lower anyway because of the lower fibre levels in the grass. As there is lots of protein in the grass you don’t usually need to worry about that. If you are using high protein cake (18%) you can drop this to a 14 to 16% crude protein concentrate in the spring because of the high protein in the grass.
When should you feed it? “My cows won’t eat it” I hear you cry. Depends on the herd a bit and if you want to maximize grass intakes. If you do want to do this, then cows should go out hungry and have an early afternoon feed, and then go out again after milking. If you are a high-yielding herd where grass intake is not maximized (i.e they are just loafing about), then a feed when they are hungriest just after milking will be best(but it does take the edge off their appetite).
And remember to carry a bottle of magnesium in you tractor/landrover/quad cab at this time of year for any staggers cases you might get.
Don’t get caught in parentage trap-cattle passports
There are at least 18,000 UK cattle currently known to be without valid passports, and therefore legally un‐saleable, according to the British Cattle Movement Service. As you will know, a first‐time passport application for animals 28 days of age onwards, or an appeal against a rejected passport application, has to be accompanied by proof of parentage from an authorised source.
Please refer to BCMS for a detailed account of the application/appeal process.
For the parentage check, blood samples are required from the animal itself and the dam. Kits for this purpose can be provided by the practice and one of the vets can take the relevant samples during a visit. Results are posted directly back to you from the Pfizer Animal Genetics’ laboratory. The lab fee per animal is £25 + vat (so £50 + vat for a calf and dam pairing.
Fluke Control
For several years, cattle and sheep farmers have been battling against an increasing incidence of liver fluke on their farms. This year’s icy, snowy winter may have an unexpected silver lining as far as fluke control is concerned by interrupting the parasite’s life cycle. Fluke eggs on the pasture can survive for a time at low temperatures, but adverse conditions can reduce survival and hatchability. This means that after a cold winter the main contribution to future infection are infected, untreated animals passing eggs, and the snail, which after it emerges from hibernation in the spring deposits infective metacercaria on the pasture from May onwards.
The metacercaria from these winter snails are much less significant in number than those from summer infected snails, partly because of snail mortality during the winter months. The harsher the winter, fewer snails survive.
This means that this spring we have an opportunity to get on top of fluke. Pasture contamination is likely to be lower this spring than in previous springs that have followed milder winters, and by treating your stock with a spring dose of flukicide it can be kept low. Fasinex (the triclabendazole flukicide) does not have to be used at this time because we are generally dealing with adult fluke in the animals. This class of drug should be saved for use in the autumn/winter, which will help prevent resistance to the drug developing. Please phone and speak to one of the vets if you wish to discuss.
Zolvix – A new class of wormer
Zolvix is a new broad spectrum wormer for treatment and control of gastrointestinal worms, including those resistant to the current range of wormer classes (white, yellow and clear) in sheep. It is the first new wormer group since 1982. Zolvix is a new ‘fourth’ group of wormer to be called ‘the orange group’ or 4-AD (amino-acetonitrile derivatives). Initially it is only available for sheep.
Although the new 4-AD wormer was first discovered ten years ago it has taken until now to come to the market, and because of its importance to the anthelmintic market place it is classified as a vet only product. Despite Zolvix being effective on all resistant and multi-resistant strains of gastro-intestinal worms, its main benefit to producers will be to prolong the effectiveness of the other wormer groups when used in conjunction with them.
One of two key areas of use is for mid-season lambs (at, or shortly before, weaning), when the worm burden from resistant worms is at its highest, and the most financial benefit can be gained from its use. The other area is as a quarantine drench, when stock are brought onto a unit. Then Zolvix will remove all worm burdens including resistant strains, when used following SCOPS recommendations.
Any farms diagnosed with resistance to the current classes of wormer will need to integrate Zolvix into their worm control programme. With a 7 day meat withdrawal period and a wide safety margin, Zolvix is environmentally friendly with no danger to watercourses or insects, which may favour the use of the product for organic production.
For the time-being Zolvix is only available via vets, and is marketed with a state of the art dosing gun. Dose rate is 1ml/10 kg by mouth and packs are available in 1 litre, 2.5 litre and a treatment pack (2 x 1 litre and a dosing gun). Prices are (for payment at time) £140.40, £351 and £324 plus vat for the respective pack size. The dosing gun on its own is approx £77 + vat. A fancy video of the new system and more information on the product is available on the web at www.zolvix.com

Welcome to the first of the Farmfirstvets online newsletters! If you look at the links on the right you can go through the archives.

XL Vets Charity Bike Ride

Dear all,

You may have seen some details floating about with reference to the XLVets charity bike ride. The idea was for groups of the XLVets to carry the XLVets calf from various points about Britain to the Dairy event (16th / 17th September) by bike whilst raising money for two charities :

1. Farm Africa - a small charity founded in 1985 to help small farmers / herders in Africa grow more food, keep their livestock healthy, make a basic living and manage their natural resources a sustainable way www.farmafrica.org.uk

2. Royal Agricultural Benevolent fund - providing for the welfare and wellbeing of members of the farming community who are facing need, hardship or distress www.rabi.org.uk

Basically our group of practices (or representatives from them, in our case Robert Smith!) cycled from Shepton Mallet to the Drove Practice in Wiltshire on the 3rd / 4th / 5th September. We took in two big markets which operate on those days to seize the opportunity to do a quick last minute bit of fund raising.

I have been some what bulled in to helping out and will be Roberts support / van driver and general dogs body (nothing new about that then) and so I am asking you if you would be so kind as to dig deep and possibly donate to what we feel is a good cause and if that's not a good enough reason.....think of me having to see Rob in his cycle shorts!! There now, that is a reason!

You can see the photos here.

Debbie

Bluetongue vaccine

The Welsh Assembly has announced that Bluetongue vaccine is scheduled to arrive with vets by Wednesday, 4 June subject to clearance of the vaccine by the Veterinary Medicines Director. See here for the full story.

Bovine TB

On April 8th, the Welsh Assembly Government has announced its Bovine TB Eradication programme. There is guidance on prevention of transmission and general guidance here

Welcome

Welcome to Farmfirstvets’ brand new website. This page will eventually contain useful relevant information. It’s early days at the moment so please bear with us!