Please tell me about Anaplasmosis?

[Jeanne - Simme Valley]

We can earmark an animal going thru the sale to strictly be for slaughter only. I just was not knowledgeable if the meat was affected.

 

[Lucky]

Is this the same thing as "Fly Fever"? If so It would be very hard to keep out of the herd. You could do everything perfectly and if your neighbor doesn't do the same you could get it. I believe there a shot the vet can give to prevent fly fever. We buy mineral to prevent it but it's hard to say wether each cow gets enough. The shot is fairly expensive so folks that do it around here usually only do the bulls.

 

[Bright Raven]

Is this the same thing as "Fly Fever"? If so It would be very hard to keep out of the herd. You could do everything perfectly and if your neighbor doesn't do the same you could get it. I believe there a shot the vet can give to prevent fly fever. We buy mineral to prevent it but it's hard to say wether each cow gets enough. The shot is fairly expensive so folks that do it around here usually only do the bulls.

As stated above, anaplasmosis is primarily carried by the bite of a tick. Flys play a very minor role in transmitting it from your neighbor's herd into your herd. Once it gets in your herd, it can be transmitted from cow to cow by reusing a needle that was stuck into a cow that is a carrier. Then, you stick the same contaminated needle in a healthy cow and then she is infected.

Using antibiotics in feed/mineral is generally considered ineffective.

 

[Lucky]

I read that it was transmitted by ticks and can only stay alive for a few minutes outside the host body. It also said horn flies can't transfer it but I would think a horse fly could. I knew disease could be transferred while working Livestock but don't know of anyone thats changes needles and syringes for every cow. Does anyone here do this? Might be interesting topic to discuss.

 

[Bright Raven]

I read that it was transmitted by ticks and can only stay alive for a few minutes outside the host body. It also said horn flies can't transfer it but I would think a horse fly could. I knew disease could be transferred while working Livestock but don't know of anyone thats changes needles and syringes for every cow. Does anyone here do this? Might be interesting topic to discuss.

I change needles between cows. Always have.

 

[TCRanch]

I read that it was transmitted by ticks and can only stay alive for a few minutes outside the host body. It also said horn flies can't transfer it but I would think a horse fly could. I knew disease could be transferred while working Livestock but don't know of anyone thats changes needles and syringes for every cow. Does anyone here do this? Might be interesting topic to discuss.

Lucky, it's a PITA to prep before working cattle but after 1 positive anaplasmosis & 2 with lymphoma I switched to a disposable syringe & needle for every cow, calf, bull & replacement heifer. The only time I use a repeater syringe is if I'm doctoring a cow for whatever reason.

 

[Lucky_P]

No issue with regard to safety of beef from an animal that's seropositive for anaplasmosis.

Yes, I change needles. Have discussed it here on numerous occasions.
I do re-use syringes for administration of the same vaccine/medication to multiple animals.

Any cow born here after 2007, and any heifer which has the slightest possibility of staying as a replacement ALWAYS gets her own new, sterile needle each time we 'work' them.... I may reuse needles on the SAME animal... for instance, giving a mlv, then switching that needle over to a syringe containing a dose of Clostridial or Lepto bacterin... but a needle that's been in an animal never goes in and out of a bottle of vaccine or medication, and for the most part... not into another animal.
I will reuse needles on steers and heifers I'm not retaining... because someone will be eating them before BLV (MY concern, but if I had anaplaz in the herd, it would be consideration #1) would be a problem.

A clinically-ill Anaplasmosis cow will likely die without treatment... she'd likely never make it through the salebarn.
IMO, there's a huge difference in sales from seedstock producers and folks just running cattle through the local salebarn, but I don't see a positive test result as a need to kill and incinerate. If you have anaplasmosis in your herd... or you're in an endemic area and your herd is at high risk... vaccination is the way to go, IMO.

I know some of the folks here on CT live and die with salebarn cattle... personally, I would never consider buying an animal at the salebarn and taking it home... Maybe I'm wrong, but in my eye... if it's at the salebarn... there's a reason it's there, and I don't want it on my place.
With the exception of steers and feeder heifers that weren't good enough to stay (or, maybe they were crazy, etc.)... anything that leaves here probably needs to be going straight to slaughter... but I don't influence that, other than telling them... 'she's open' or, 'she's bred'. If someone's buying my stuff at the barn... it's 'caveat emptor'... I'm not selling something that I know is gonna die in the next week... but I wouldn't hesitate to sell a 'healthy' cow that's BLV- positive... or maybe even Anaplas-positive... I don't have to face the dilemma, as I don't have anaplasmosis in my herd... but I'm not sure whether I'd announce positive/negative status on a cull cow going through the local salebarn or not... if you're buying at the salebarn, I figure you're a big boy and you can take your chances.

I've sometimes suggested... and not necessarily jokingly... that if someone is testing their (commercial) herd for anaplasmosis titers, and they're finding a high percentage of positives... they might need to consider selling all the test-negative animals and keeping the positives! Those negative animals are at risk of becoming infected and dying; the positives are not... but they can serve as a source of inoculation for ticks that could transmit it to naive animals.
Calves born to those positive cows probably have a pretty reasonable likelihood of being infected early in life... becoming chronically-infected animals that also will never become clinically ill... but can serve as a reservoir for infection.

Valuable seropositive animals that you feel 'must' be restored to test-negative status can potentially be cleared by feeding high levels of CTC (2mg/lb body wt/day) for 60 days or so. It may take 3-6 months for their titer to drop back to 0... and they are susceptible to reinfection.

 

[Bright Raven]

Thank you Lucky Pittman. Your perspective on how to dispose of infected animals is valuable info for me. Pays to be careful with anaplaz. I have heard one case where a law suit was filed because a seedstock producer passed an animal on at a major sale.

I would go grizzly bear hunting with an ice pick before I would buy stockyard cattle.

 

[Lucky]

It wouldn't be very expensive to use a new needle and syringe everytime but as TC says would be a major PITA for me. I'm just running commercial cattle and would never find any decent help that would swap needles everytime. We have discussed it though.

 

[TCRanch]

It wouldn't be very expensive to use a new needle and syringe everytime but as TC says would be a major PITA for me. I'm just running commercial cattle and would never find any decent help that would swap needles everytime. We have discussed it though.

I actually spend quality time a few days prior to working cattle preparing & filling the syringes. The syringes/vaccinations are separated by cows/bulls, heifers & calves and stored in individual coolers. Makes it easy when we're working cattle because I'll have a cooler of (for example) Covexin 8 giving shots one side of the chute while one of my crew has another cooler & is administering Triangle on the other - grab a syringe, give a shot, throw it in a bucket, one-n-done, run the next one through. I take the used needles to my vet, who disposes of them.

 

[Lucky_P]

Commercial herd here; most cows in the herd are a 2- or 3-breed cross. Only registered animal is the walking bull.
I'd like to think that my females are of good genetic quality, but still, they're just commercial cattle. Nonetheless, it's worth the time and expense to change needles; even with 80 cows and their calves.

Lymphosarcoma, a malignant cancer of the lymphoid system, associated with Bovine Leukosis virus(BLV) infection was hitting our herd hard, as a result of me (and I knew better!) spreading the infection to the point that 40 of 44 adult cows were infected, back in 2007 - mostly because I reused needles until they got so dull that I couldn't poke them through the skin again. We were averaging 2 cows/year lost to lymphosarcoma.
Since that time, all 'clean' females and any heifer, even if born to a BLV+ dam, has only been injected with their own sterile needle.
Is it more time-consuming? Yeah, a little bit so, but not a huge hassle.
Expense is minimal; needles are cheap. In the long run, way cheaper than losing a cow to lymphosarcoma

 

[TCRanch]

Commercial herd here; most cows in the herd are a 2- or 3-breed cross. Only registered animal is the walking bull.
I'd like to think that my females are of good genetic quality, but still, they're just commercial cattle. Nonetheless, it's worth the time and expense to change needles; even with 80 cows and their calves.

Lymphosarcoma, a malignant cancer of the lymphoid system, associated with Bovine Leukosis virus(BLV) infection was hitting our herd hard, as a result of me (and I knew better!) spreading the infection to the point that 40 of 44 adult cows were infected, back in 2007 - mostly because I reused needles until they got so dull that I couldn't poke them through the skin again. We were averaging 2 cows/year lost to lymphosarcoma.
Since that time, all 'clean' females and any heifer, even if born to a BLV+ dam, has only been injected with their own sterile needle.
Is it more time-consuming? Yeah, a little bit so, but not a huge hassle.
Expense is minimal; needles are cheap. In the long run, way cheaper than losing a cow to lymphosarcoma

Lucky P, you're one of the reasons I switched to disposable 3 years ago after our first Lymphosarcoma. Never recommended by my vet until after the fact & most people around here reuse needles with a repeater syringe until they're dull. Our 2nd was case last year and she was only 6 years old so I'm assuming she had been infected for a long time before her symptoms appeared. Losing cows is an expensive and painful lesson. My herd is also commercial (except for the bulls) but for me it's absolutely worth it.