Treatment Options for Rotavirus

It can be difficult to understand why different infections behave in different ways on your farms. Rotavirus is a relatively common infection affecting new born calves. If the calf is not getting sufficient protection through the colostrum it will have the effect of eroding the lining of the gut to cause severe scour. Often it is difficult to keep ahead of the dehydration, even if fluids are given direct into a vein, and it is this that is responsible for the ultimate out come of the infection. Rota virus is difficult to treat so it is better to stop it happening in the first place.

Vaccine for Cows

There is a vaccine available that you can give to the cow or heifer. This is one single dose that needs to be given at least one month before the expected calving. The vaccine is effective and protects against Coronavirus and some strains of E Coli as well so it is quite comprehensive as long as you can cope with the waiting period before it starts working. If you are using the vaccine you will need to take extra care to make sure new born calves get a good feed within six hours of birth. If there is any doubt it is better to milk the cow and use a tube for the first feed.

Medicated Paste for Calves

Second best and at the time of an outbreak we use a paste to boost the colostrum. This is convenient and needs to be given as soon as the calf is born. Rotaguard doesn’t give the same levels of antibodies to the viruses and bacteria as you can achieve with the injection, but it seems to be adequate and will control an outbreak when it first starts. Rotaguard is useful when an outbreak starts. When samples are taken it can take several days to get a diagnosis and it may help to prevent further losses.

Managing Heifers

Often with rotavirus, it you can keep your calving accommodation clean, things will settle down after a while and you might well find that you can cope without further treatments. Rotavirus is very infectious, but it has no clinical effects on older animals so the thought is that when it has been active for a while cows will develop a solid immunity which they can pass on through their colostrum. It might help if you have had an outbreak of this disease to mix any in calf heifers with some of the herd, or at least house them in buildings that have recently been used by cows. This is a useful way of introducing them to the infections that the herd has. If the heifers get sufficient exposure to rotavirus it should show in their colostrum.

Early Treatments

It can sometimes be difficult to understand why one farm has problems with a disease that their neighbour never has to worry about. Pneumonia is like that. We all know the risk factors, get the ventilation as good as you can, avoid mixing groups of animals of different ages and keep the bedding as dry as possible. Even when you are doing all of this it can still be a problem on some farms. Whether it depends on how sheltered your buildings are I am not sure. It certainly helps to be vigilant. When you start to get calves coughing they will readily pass the infection on. If you can control the first few cases before it gets established it will have benefits for the whole group.

New Test for Respiratory Viruses

When calves cough it is often difficult to know what viruses or bacteria are active on your farm. The Animal and Plant Health Agency have now abandoned the Fluorescent Antibody Test for Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis, Respiratory Syncitial Virus and the Para Influenza Virus. They now use a different technique called Triplex Polymerase Chain Reaction which has been found to be more sensitive. Which means it should be able to detect the presence of the virus even if there in very small quantities. I have no experience of this new test for the respiratory viruses. In the past results have taken a long time to be reported and have sometimes been negative when the indications were that it was a viral pneumonia. Hopefully things will be better from now on.

Soil Test Results

Soil tests are useful and can be helpful to identify if there might be something you might need to investigate to keep your livestock healthy. Some fields are short of copper. If this is reflected in blood samples from your sheep you might need to dose the ewes in the winter to prevent swayback.  One of the elements that they look for is sodium. Low sodium levels are a good thing as they indicate fertile soils. Low levels do not mean that it will cause problems for your livestock. Sodium is measured because high levels can have implications for what will grow in your fields. It might be a problem in coastal areas and on fields that have been flooded by sea water. I am not sure what you can do if you find high sodium levels in soil samples.

New Phone Numbers

There is now a new telephone number to use if you need to contact the Rural Payments Agency or the Animal Health and Plant Health Agency for TB Licensing. The number to use now is 03000 200 301. Listen carefully to the options to get through to the right department.

Aneurysm Deaths

The Animal and Plant Health Agency report that two cows have been investigated after dying unexpectedly on a 150 cow dairy farm. The first had died three days after an unassisted calving, the second was due to calve in the next ten days. Both of these animals had died as a result of haemorrhage from rupture of the uterine and vaginal arteries. This is a condition that has seldom been reported in the past. In late pregnancy the arteries to the uterus expand massively, but they usually cope with the demand. Previous cases have been reported in Holstein-Friesian cattle from North America, but the exact cause remains unclear. There would be no visible external signs of internal haemorrhage. The assumption may be that this was a missed milk fever and the only clue would be white membranes of the eye and a pale tongue.

Lame Cat

It has been reported that cultures from a cat that had been lame for a week with a swollen front leg have revealed the presence of Mycobacterium bovis spoligiotype 17. Sadly there is no practical treatment when cats get tuberculosis.

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