Dairy

Dairy cow mortality levels in the United States have been increasing over time. This is both a financial concern and an important animal welfare issue.

The 2020 American Dairy Science Association’s 4th edition of the Guide for the Care and Use of Agricultural Animals in Research and Teaching has generated a lot of discussion within the WSU Field Disease Investigation Unit.

• Title: The different castration techniques in beef calves.
• Title: An overview of the risks and benefits of drinking unpasteurized cow’s milk.
• Title: Comparison of progesterone based estrus synchronization protocols with differing GnRH and PGF2alpha injections in beef heifers.

• Title: Effects of a farm-specific fecal microbial transplant (FMT) product on clinical outcomes and fecal microbiome composition in preweaned dairy calves
• Title: Transcriptional changes detected in fecal RNA from neonatal dairy calves of different breeds following gastrointestinal disease of varying severity
• Title: Improving farm-level antimicrobial stewardship benchmarks by reporting antimicrobial use within the context of both the magnitude of disease pressure and the outcome of therapy
• Title: Contrasting fecal methanogenic and bacterial profiles of organic dairy cows located in northwest Washington receiving either a mixed diet of pasture and TMR or solely TMR

By Dr. Bruce Hutton, Washington State Department of Agriculture, Region 3 Field Veterinarian

A long life in good health is the obvious ideal for humans. A productive life in good health is the equivalent target for dairy cattle.

• Title: The relationship between Angus and Santa Gertrudis sired steer calves and Anabolic Implant Protocol relative to steer feeding behavior in the feedlot.
• Title: Rinderpest rights and wrongs: Disease control lessons for the small animal practitioner.
• Title: Common causes of abortion in beef cattle in the Southwest Region of the United States.
• Title: Assessing the relationship between pulmonary lobar consolidation and bacterial prevalence in the upper respiratory tract of Holstein dairy calves.

• Title: Differentially expressed candidate miRNAs of day 16 bovine embryos on the regulation of pregnancy establishment in dairy cows.

One of the main points of reproductive efficiency is correctly identifying cows in estrus.

An emerging disease of unknown etiology affecting mostly dairy cows in the early stages of first lactation.