"Foothill Abortion Disease" -- CA, NV, OR

[Kathie in Thorp]

Hey, any of you heard of this or had any experience with it? Sounds like it's mostly a problem in a specific geographic area of the Western states. ?? http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=11222

 

[dun]

Many years ago we had a round of it in california in the mid 70s. It was a real stinker to get properly diagnosed. Once you've seen the results it's easy to tell what it is. It is also spread by contact with the aborted fetus and the birthing fluids. It only affects them once then they are immune to it. We pulled close to 100 goat fetuses that were affected. The birthing fluids are pink and frothy and the bones are like rubber. Pulling them frequently consists of removing them piece by piece. We had bought a doeling from a well established herd near the coast. Kidding season got off to a normal start until the new one kidded. We lost 100% of the kids following that. Had to send a fetus and all of the placenta to UC Davis to get it diagnosed. Foothill Abortion is the common name, it is chlamydia abortus. We treated the water (don;t recall for how long) with large doses of ampicillin (spelling). Cleared it up and never were affected again. Not an experience I would wish on my worst enemy or to go through it again.

 

[branguscowgirl]

Yes I have heard of it here in CA. Thank goodness I have had no experience with it.

 

[WalnutCrest]

This sounds similar in some respects to neospora ...

 

[dun]

This sounds similar in some respects to neospora ...

I don;t know about that. Chlamydia attacks the surfaces between the caruncle and the cotyledon and causes fetal death. That's how it was explained by UC Davis back in the mid 70s when we had it.

 

[cow pollinater]

Yep, I have paid the ignorance tax on foothill abort a few times over. :mrgreen: Once the cattle get exposed it goes away and I've had no problems at all with my native heifers and the native cows but just about every non native cow I own has skipped a year.