Haywood Farm Vets Newsletter September 2024

Bovine TB - an update

Bovine TB is a really emotive subject for farmers, vets, politicians, the public (and seemingly musicians) and has caught some media interest in the last few weeks. A new government TB eradication policy was launched on 30th Aug 2024 with the aim of bringing together farmers, vets, scientists and conservationists and will include:

• Badger Population Survey
• Wildlife TB surveillance (to include badger & deer) to find out how much TB there is in these populations
• Establish a Badger Vaccinator Field Force
• Badger Vaccination Study
• Accelerate work on cattle vaccination

Bovine TB (bTB):

Bovine TB is a chronic, infectious disease caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis). It is mainly, but not exclusively, a respiratory disease. It is caught by breathing in droplets of sputum (mucus coughed up from the lower airways) containing TB bacteria. This can occur through close contact with infected cattle and wildlife. Infection is also possible through other routes, for example eating feed contaminated with sputum, milk, urine, faeces or pus from infectious animals.

The 5 Point Plan for controlling bTB:

1. Restrict contact between cattle and badgers

2. Manage cattle feed and water

3. Stop infected cattle entering the herd

4. Reduce risk from neighbouring herds

5. Minimise risk from cattle muck

How much of a risk is muck for passing on bTB?

"Muck" was a big area of focus in the recent BBC program "The Badgers, The Farmers and Me". The scientific evidence suggests TB can be spread in muck from infectious animals if they have active lesions and are coughing up and swallowing infected sputum and so sensible precautions are important:

• high temperatures in stored, stacked box muck should kill off bTB bacteria
• bTB can survive in slurry for a long time (up to 6 months) so store slurry for at least 6 months before applying onto grazing land
• ideally only spread slurry onto arable land, or onto pasture that isn't going to be grazed for a further 2 months
• don't spread slurry from other farms onto your grazing land
• make sure slurry is applied without creating an aerosol or contaminating the leaf (dribble bar or trailing shoe)

It goes without saying that frequent, careful bTB skin testing means we should find infected cows early on in the disease process - this reduces the risk of them having active TB lesions and reduces the risk of the manure being a significant source of infection on your farms.

bTB is never going to be sorted out by concentrating on one risk factor only - and we'd be foolish to think it was that simple or that the risk factors were the same for all herds. Successful bTB control is a combination of knowing your farm risks and wildlife population, careful TB testing, reducing the infection pressure within your herd, reducing the wildlife risk on your farms, sensible purchasing if you're buying in and making sure your herd is as healthy and robust as possible.

As your vets, we see the trauma that bTB causes on your farms, in your herds and in your communities. We are ALWAYS here to listen, to talk, to advocate for you with APHA and will do all we can to help. But if you need to talk to someone else, here are details of a few free, local and confidential support services available to you:

Contacts:

Farming Community Network: 030000 111 999

Shropshire Rural Support: 0300 123 2825 or Text "SRS" to 85258

SHOUT: Text "Hawkstone" to 85258

APHA REGISTER OF BIRDS

All bird keepers in England and Wales must register their birds with APHA by 1st October 2024.

83 backyard flocks have been affected by Avian Infuenza in the past few years and so registering all flocks, no matter the size, will help APHA be able to notify bird keepers of local disease outbreaks, and better focus resources if bird flu' rears its head again.

Contact details and changes to the flock size will need updating annually following this deadline.

MEDS UPDATE

CLAMOX RTU:

Synulox 100ml injection will be swapping over to Clamox RTU due to a manufacturing supply issue with one of the ingredients in Synulox.

Clamox RTU is exactly the same medicine as Synulox:

• Dose: 1ml/20kg IM once a day for 3-5 days
• Milk withhold: 60 hours
• Meat withhold: 42 days
• Licensed in cattle for: Respiratory infections, soft tissue infections (abscesses, arthritis), metritis, mastitis.

UBROSTAR RED:

Ubrostar Red dry cow tubes have been out of stock for a number of months but we've been able to keep stock available to our clients due to a bit of a handy stockpile. Normal supply should be resuming over the next few weeks.

BOVIVAC-S:

Salmonella vaccine has been under pressure over the last 12-18 months but we've secured a significant amount which will take the pressure off now for new users and boosters that are due.

NORODINE 24:

Diatrim will be changing over to Norodine 24 - again, they are identical medicines but don't forget the dose rate for both is 1ml/16kg IM (or slow IV) daily for up to 5 days. This means for a 650kg cow the daily dose is 41ml so you'll need two bottles for a course.