Cattle

Calf scour management and alternative therapies

Prevention is better than cure undoubtedly, but allied to that is a new approach to the types of products that should be considered in the light of current antimicrobial resistance issues and the...

Responsible use of medicines and medicine recording

Figure 3. On-farm culture is increasingly utilised on farm to identify cases of mastitis that may not require treatment with antibiotics.

Practical use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in farm practice

NSAIDs work by targeting the pro-inflammatory pathway and preventing synthesis of proinflammatory substances. They prevent the conversion of arachidonic acid into prostaglandins and thromboxane, by...

Figure 4. Extension to dry cow yard (herd F).

Dry cow environment management and mastitis control in dairy herds

For many veterinary surgeons and advisors, a herd health approach can be difficult for those clients that run spring calving systems, particularly as mastitis control is often perceived to be very...

Figure 3. Example of additional outside space for dairy cattle.

Understanding the social behaviour of dairy cattle can benefit welfare and productivity

SNA is being utilised with increasing prevalence to untangle patterns of social behaviour. Originally, this approach was used to aid the understanding of human relationships, but it has recently been...

Figure 4. Measuring the internal pelvic width with the Rice pelvimeter, with the measurement taken from the level of the poas tubercles to measure the widest point of the pelvis.

Pre-breeding heifer examination and selection in UK beef herds

The RTS system (Anderson et al, 1991) ranges from score 1–5, indicating prepubescent to pubescent reproductive tracts, respectively. The reproductive tracts are palpated per rectum, and a score...

Cattle Review: September–October 2020

The aim of a study undertaken by Becker et al (2020) (Preventive Veterinary Medicine doi. org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.104907) was to evaluate a novel concept for calf fattening aimed at reducing...

Figure 1. The characteristic oily appearance of Mycoplasma bovis on selective growth media.

Mycoplasma spp. mastitis — approach to diagnosis

Mycoplasma spp. mastitis outbreaks are rare, but when they occur they tend to be characterised by recurrent mastitis that is non-responsive to treatment, and a high rate of subclinical infections.

Figure 1. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs should be a standard part of the pain management in calves undergoing disbudding.

An introduction to NSAIDs for cattle: recommendations for the veterinary surgeon

The literature on the use of NSAIDs in cattle is growing — a quick search using Scopus with search terms ‘NSAID’ and ‘cattle’ identified 228 documents of which half had been published in the last 9...

Cattle Review: July–August 2020

Evidence of the effectiveness of interventions designed to enhance antimicrobial stewardship (AMS) is essential. A review by Gozdzielewska et al (2020) (Preventive Veterinary...

Figure 2. M4 lesion before and after removal of the overlying hyperkeratotic scab, showing ulcerated tissue where invasion of pathogens has caused severe damage to the epidermis.

Infection reservoirs and transmission of digital dermatitis in the dairy herd

The most recently calculated reproduction ratio (R0) for DD is 2.36, meaning that in the absence of control measures it is expected that each case will give rise to 2.36 further cases (Biemans et al,...

Figure 1. The potassium (K) of grass silage (left) is higher than cereal silages (middle) and is very difficult to predict. Mineral analysis (right) of grass silages intended for dry cows is very worthwhile.

An update on hypocalcaemia control

The use of Ca salt containing drenches around calving is popular and is reasonably effective at controlling clinical hypocalcaemia. The most soluble salts are the most effective; calcium chloride is...