A Bit of History                                                            

The fifteenth of October saw the 150^th anniversary of the State Veterinary Service. It was started during a particularly severe outbreak of Rindapest in Cattle. At that time police officers as well as veterinary Surgeons were responsible for inspecting abattoirs. Affected animals were slaughtered and £20 was paid in compensation. During 1866 over 400,000 animals were lost to this disease.                    

The Start of Tuberculin Testing                       

 Notable dates were in 1910 when the chief veterinary officer Stewart Stockman realised there was a link between human tuberculosis and untreated milk which lead to the first Tuberculosis order and the first testing of cattle. I am sure thy would be most disappointed to learn that we are still testing cattle and struggling with tuberculosis with no sign of it being brought under control more than one hundred years later.                     

 Eradicating Rabies                                              

 In 1917 the Central Veterinary Laboratory was founded at Addestone in Surrey and it was soon kept busy when the following year Rabies was brought back into the country with soldiers returning from the First World War. In 1921following a severe outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease it was recommended that a research project was undertaken to find better methods of controlling the infection.                                       

New Name Needed                                                           

The state veterinary service is responsible for disease control in horses, farmed animals, poultry and wildlife. In 1926 a new disease was identified in chickens in the north east of England. The problem started near New Castle on Tyne so it was given the temporary name of New Castle Disease until something more suitable could be found. They still haven’t decided what the new name should be.           

 Disease Free Milk                                                   

 In 1934 milk that could be guaranteed as disease free was able to be sold at a premium price and this prompted the first large scale testing of cattle that has been going on ever since. In 1942 the Central Veterinary Laboratory started producing Tuberculin, by 1961 it was recognised as the largest producer of tuberculin in the World. After the turn of the century the laboratory was experiencing more and more problems with the production of tuberculin and they stopped all together in 2007. All of our supplies of tuberculin now come from Holland.                                          

Testing for Brucellosis                                                       

 In 1939 responding to the threat of biological warfare mass production of an anthrax vaccine was started. For the first time women were employed to work as laboratory technicians. In 1960 it was realised that as there were 100 human cases of Brucellosis each year something had to be done to control the disease in cattle. At that time the annual loss to the industry was estimated to be £1 million each year. By 1973 six million blood samples were tested each year and calve were vaccinated to limit the spread of the infection. The United Kingdom was declared Brucellosis free in 1981 although it does turn up from time to time with imported animals.                                                         

Spread of Foot and Mouth Disease                         

Foot and Mouth disease was a constant worry and after the still remembered outbreak in 1967 it was realised that wind and weather played a part in the spread of the virus. From that date metrological data and movement records were used to predict the spread of the infection. Increasingly computers have been used to do this.                                        

The One they Missed                                             

The State Veterinary Service has had many achievements over the past one hundred and fifty years for both animal and human health. What they fail to mention are the diseases that they have tried to control but failed. In the past a considerable amount of effort was put into eradicating sheep scab by the twice yearly dipping of all flocks. In 1952 an observant shepherd noticed a lesion on one of his ewes the flock was treated and that was declared to be the last case of sheep scab in the UK.  Unfortunately it came back again in 1973 when there were forty farms affected and there have been an increasing number ever since. You will probably remember that compulsory dipping was brought back between 1984 and 1989, at that time the dips we had were far more effective at treating scab at least than what they had after the war, but for one reason or another the disease was getting out of control so in 1992 sheep scab was deregulated and from that time DEFRA has not known how many cases there have been in the country.                          

Tail Biting in Calves                                                 

Recently there have been reports of tail biting in a group of 120 Belgian blue cross calves on a dairy farm in the south west of England. Another group of 50 calves bred on the same farm but housed two kilometres away were also affected. Tail biting in growing calves has not been reported many times. It has been noted in cattle with a phosphorus deficient diet, but there was no evidence of this. The cattle were fed an adlib diet based on maize and grass silage, lime flour, whole oats and rolled barley were added and the diet had been formulated to give a weight gain of 1kg each day. This diet had been used on previous batches of calves and this was the first time that there had been problems with tail biting on the farm.                                                                         

Tail Amputations                                                      

 Initially the calves were treated with Oxytetracycline injections, a wound spray and deltamethrin pour on to combat any possible lice although none were seen. Some of the calves had ring worm lesions, but these were mainly on the face and neck and were not thought to be very active. Affected calves were seen to be sucking and chewing on the calves of their companions. Some calves were able to chew at their own tails. The worst affected were housed on their own, but this did little to stop the occurrence of new cases. Fifteen of the calves had their tails surgically amputated to control the problem. Their over all growth rate has not been affected.     

Cause Unclear                                                           

It is not clear what has caused this problem. It has been noted that there was some mould growth on the grass silage that was being used, blood sample have shown that there was no increase in the liver enzymes of any of the calves so a mycotoxin problem is unlikely. The cattle were housed in a purpose built building and they were not closely stocked so there is no obvious reason for it to occur. It might well be that this is a behavioural problem. Calves are inquisitive and it could well be that one of them started chewing at a tail and others have joined in as well, but it seems a bit strange that it could get so far out of hand.                                                                    

Farmer Attitudes to Tuberculosis                      

Yesterday I read a paper by fifteen different authors concerning farmer’s attitudes to tuberculosis in the edge areas. These are the places which DEFRA are particularly concerned about as it is where the disease is spreading to next. The answers to the survey were what you would expect. Two thirds of farmers had purchased stock in the past year, about a quarter had been able to isolate purchased stock for sixty days. Three quarters of the farmers surveyed were aware of badger activity on their farms and twelve percent had taken some measures to keep them out of cattle buildings and away from silage clamps. Very few of the respondents thought  was anything that they could do to stop Tuberculosis infecting their cattle.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                

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