Brisket/ High Elevation Disease

[Trixie Club Calves]

I live in extremely high elevation (8500) so we have to be careful to try and prevent Brisket.
In June we had a show steer die of brisket 1 month before show so we've been thinking about it a lot.

Are specific breeds more prone to Brisket? Do some breeds not get brisket? Are some more prone to getting brisket from certain genetics?

The steer that died from brisket was an angus cross steer. He was 1 year old, and came from same elevation where we live.

We also have a 3 1/2 year old cow that's in our herd currently from elevation around 300 from Michigan. She's a shorthorn plus clubby type cow.

Though this may be an interesting topic.

 

[redcowsrule33]

https://hereford.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/0219_GenomicsOfBrisketDisease.pdf

I found this to be a good read.

 

[Ned Jr.]

There's a good article starting on page 10.

https://herefordamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024_04.pdf

 

[GoWyo]

I won't use 90% of the Angus A.I. sires because of PAP issues. We can test PAP, but we are only 4800 feet at the home place and our lease pastures are 5600-6200 feet. Dr. Holt's observations are that elevation really starts to have an effect around 6400 feet.

The University of Wyoming started a High Elevation Bull Test and Sale with the first sale in March 2023. Laramie is at 7200 feet. We put all our bull calves in it for the 2024 test. We sent 22 bulls November 1, 2023, PAP screen on December 15 results kicked 6 calves out and we culled 2 for really high PAP and wintered the other 4 here and sold them with full disclosure they need to stay below 5000 feet or used as cleanup bulls and all calves will be terminal. After the final PAP test in February, we pulled 3 more for high PAP scores and culled 2 of them for really high PAP and used the third one for cleanup.

It was expensive to have so many fall out of the test, but the ones that made it through sold well and made up quite a bit of ground. The main benefits were that the data is helping us figure out what we have to work on (helps identify some suspect cows) and the buyers can be confident in the bulls they are buying from us.

I heard through the grapevine that some local guys bought several high dollar bulls ($12,000-20,000) in the fall 2023 and winter 2024 bull sales and sent them to high elevation around Laramie for a couple months. Most of those bulls got sent back to the breeders because they had high PAP scores and were not going to make it at elevation.

A bull can PAP test fine at lower elevation, but once subjected to altitude, a quarter to a third or more will have high PAP scores (50+) and need to go down in elevation or their heart has probably already started "remodeling" itself and the damage is done.

Another interesting thing is that a cow or bull may do fine at elevation for several years, then develop brisket disease. Those animals are probably on the edge and do OK for a period of time until some stressor occurs and the animal falls apart. It will be a long slow process for us to weed out the PAP issues, but the bull test is definitely helping us and our customers.

 

[GoWyo]

https://hereford.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/0219_GenomicsOfBrisketDisease.pdf

I found this to be a good read.

This is a really good article.

 

[GoWyo]

There's a good article starting on page 10.

https://herefordamerica.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/2024_04.pdf

This article is really good too. It certainly helps to be at altitude year round to find the cattle that make it and the cattle that do not.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Maybe breed in some yak blood? It's just a thought.

 

[GoWyo]

Maybe breed in some yak blood? It's just a thought.

Not very good growth and bad hair shed scores. They would handle bad weather though.

 

[TexasJerseyMilker]

Maybe just 1/4 or 1/8 yak?

 

[Ned Jr.]

I know of some people that raise yaks near Fairplay which is basically 10,000 feet elevation. They must do ok. See a lot of Highlanders around that area also.