SBMF 2015
Well-known member
We have discussed Brucellosis on and off in conversations that started on another topic a couple times this year. I thought it might be interesting to relive some war stories that some of the vets and longtime cattle folks have.
As most of the regulars on CT know I worked for a sale barn vet for ten years. I'd hate to guess how many on sight ELISA tests I ran. Tens of thousands. My best friend and I also did the vast majority of recording the ID's, tattoos, ages, breed, ect. that went on the USDA form.
An official USDA steel tag ID has 2 numbers 3 letters 4 numbers. The first two digits represent the state. Illinois is 33. If an animal never had a steel tag or had "lost it" We were required to give them a new one. 1 steel tag per animal. Some of the western drought cows that passed through the sale barn would jingle when they walked. Apparently, it was easier to give them a new tag than to record the one they already had. The most we ever saw was 10 steel tags in one ear! Lots of cows had multiples.
On the test chart a two-letter code was used for each breed. No BWF's were BW. Unknown cross breds were XX. Most of the time it was just an educated guess unless they came from a registered herd.
Probably the most "false" positives we had were from the Strain 19 vaccine. It was so potent that years later aged cows that had been calfhood vaccinated would show up positive on the ELISA test. It caused a lot of upset producers and hot conversations about why there cows couldn't sell at the sale that week.
Never saw the B brand used. Helped brand several of those Strain 19 cows as S suspect. That pretty well guaranteed that they would bring only a few cents a pound.
So what kind of memories do the rest of you have?
As most of the regulars on CT know I worked for a sale barn vet for ten years. I'd hate to guess how many on sight ELISA tests I ran. Tens of thousands. My best friend and I also did the vast majority of recording the ID's, tattoos, ages, breed, ect. that went on the USDA form.
An official USDA steel tag ID has 2 numbers 3 letters 4 numbers. The first two digits represent the state. Illinois is 33. If an animal never had a steel tag or had "lost it" We were required to give them a new one. 1 steel tag per animal. Some of the western drought cows that passed through the sale barn would jingle when they walked. Apparently, it was easier to give them a new tag than to record the one they already had. The most we ever saw was 10 steel tags in one ear! Lots of cows had multiples.
On the test chart a two-letter code was used for each breed. No BWF's were BW. Unknown cross breds were XX. Most of the time it was just an educated guess unless they came from a registered herd.
Probably the most "false" positives we had were from the Strain 19 vaccine. It was so potent that years later aged cows that had been calfhood vaccinated would show up positive on the ELISA test. It caused a lot of upset producers and hot conversations about why there cows couldn't sell at the sale that week.
Never saw the B brand used. Helped brand several of those Strain 19 cows as S suspect. That pretty well guaranteed that they would bring only a few cents a pound.
So what kind of memories do the rest of you have?