Hi! I'm new and I have a question about Pasturella

[east texan]

We have had three calves to die in the last three weeks from Pasturella, in the last 35 years my family has had cattle this has never happened. What causes this and what is it? We had a vet out and he did an autopsy he determined this was Pasturella and not black leg, can someone help me the vet just said it was infectious.

 

[msscamp]

We have had three calves to die in the last three weeks from Pasturella, in the last 35 years my family has had cattle this has never happened. What causes this and what is it? We had a vet out and he did an autopsy he determined this was Pasturella and not black leg, can someone help me the vet just said it was infectious.

I don't mean to sound flip, nor do I mean to make light of a very serious situation, but there is a first time for everything when it comes to raising cattle - that is the major reason for reading and staying on top of 'new' illness/diseases. As much as cattle are being transported these days, that which was not a problem 10 years ago could be a major problem tomorrow, or 2 weeks from now. To the best of my knowledge we have never had to deal with it, but I would be willing to bet that Pasteurella is a bacteria that either causes pnemonia, or causes upper respiratory infections that can/do develop into pneumonia, and is resistant to the usual antibiotics. I seem to recall seeing vaccines that can prevent it, but I'm not sure about that. I would suggest that you either google Pasteurella, or that you have a serious talk with your vet about what it is and what is available to control/prevent it. I wish you the best of luck!

 

[I luv herfrds]

Welcome to the board east texan.

I'll tell you what I know about pasturella. It is a bacterial pnuemonia. The animal that gets it will run a fever and in pregnant cows it will cause death and/or abortions.
There is a vaccine for it. We use Vista Once SQ in our calves.
Sorry can't remember what we use in our cows as a pasturella vaccine.

Go into the search on the Health and Nutrition board and look up, Vet's Stumped that was started by me when we had pasturella running through our herd.

Sorry we never found the cause for our outbreak. We just guessed that it was caused by a cold wind after a snow storm, but we are not positive.

 

[djinwa]

I'm alittle rusty on this, but here's some general ideas.

Pasteurella is normally found in healthy cattle in their nose and throat. If they have their immune system suppressed or damaged, the Pasteurella can cause disease into the lungs (pneumonia).

Immune suppression occurs from fear/anxiety, malnutrition, and viral infections. Pasteurella is a possible part of pneumonias called "shipping fever". During weaning and transport, cattle have fear which releases cortisone which suppresses immunity. They also usually lack feed and water for long periods. And viruses are spread around.

Also need to vaccinate for viruses to prevent pneumonias. Vaccinations have to be given when the immune system is working, i.e. before all the stresses occur and they have good nutrition.

What is the story on your calves? Were they transported, stressed, away from feed? How old are they?

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index ... 121216.htm

Note Mannheimia hemolytica used to be called Pasteurella hemolytica - just read it was renamed in 1999.

 

[east texan]

:tiphat: Thank's for the info on the pasturella, this actually started after we bought a black brangus bull, but the bull is doing fine. Does this happen only to calves, so far those are the only one's who have died. Normally when we have a cow to die on our farm it's from old age, this a new one for us, we have had sick cow's before and we knew what to do.

 

[xbred]

were they sale barn claves? if so it comes with the territory..cattle ran through the sale barn are likely to get anything and then bring it home...

 

[I luv herfrds]

ours mainly affected our cows. Never got a sick calf or first year heifer, they were in a corral seperate from the main herd. It was just our main cow herd.