Lepto - Katpau

[inyati13]

Katpau, you posted the following in the thread Pathogenic Microbes of Bovines.

I would like to hear more on Lepto. I lost a couple calves about 2 to 3 weeks before their due date. I was able to get the calf, the afterbirth and blood from the second cow in to a lab for some tests. Unfortunately the calf died on a Friday, so most of my samples were worthless by Monday when the lab at the University opened. My local Vet did the necropsy on the farm while I watched. He thought there were signs that the cause may have been Lepto. I learned that there are many types of Lepto, not all vaccinations will get every kind, and that the vaccination was only good for about 6 months. The lab did reveal very high titres (sp?) for one type of Lepto. The tests are not complete yet, so I am still waiting on a complete written report. The Vet called to give me these preliminary results on Friday. I had gotten in the habit of giving all vaccinations at the same time in Spring, just before bull turnout. I will now give the Lepto vaccine latter in the year after cows are further along in pregnancy. The Vet told me Lepto was a concern in this area. It is found often in the population of deer and other wildlife that share the pastures with my cattle.

I have posted a report on Leptospirosis in the Pathogenic Microbes of Bovines thread. In regard to the 6 months of effectiveness. See the description for Pfizer Spirovac VL5 below:

Campylobacter Fetus-Leptospira Canico la-Grippotyphosa-Hardjo-Icterohaeorrhagiae-Pomona Bacterin
Protects against Lepto hardjo, found in more than 55% of US dairy herds, and 42% of US beef herds.
Safe for use in pregnant cows, enabling whole-herd vaccination.
Provides a 12-month duration of full immunity against Lepto hardjo and the other 4 Lepto's as well, resulting in less time and labor required for vaccination.
5 mL SQ dose followed by a 2nd dose given 4-6 weeks later, with annual revaccination.
Vaccine is SAFE for pregnant cows and calves nursing pregnant cows.

 

[Katpau]

Thank you Inyati,
I had used Virashield 6 + VL5 a killed vaccine from Novartis. The bottle said vaccinate 2 to 4 weeks prior to breeding. Vaccinations were given on May 14th and bulls were turned out May 16th. A small number of cows were AI'd on May 15th. From those instructions it does not seem like my vaccination program was too far off. My Vet recommends giving the Lepto vaccine half way through pregnancy, however. The calves I lost included a 65 pound bull out of a 3 year old cow who was bred AI, and a 78 pound heifer out of a 4 year old cow. The four year old was bull bred and it was 270 days since the bull was turned out. The AI bred cow aborted on day 258 of gestation. If I remember correctly the Vet said titers on the cow who had calved 3 days prior were at 1600 and the cow who had lost her calf two weeks prior was at 800. I think he said it was Hardjo that tested high. All others types of Lepto had very low titers. I don't know for sure if this is the reason for those dead calves. The lungs of the one we did a necropsy on were full of blood. The other organs appeared normal. None of my cows ever showed any signs of illness, and all are in good condition. We have had about a dozen live healthy calves since those two and are still only 284 days from bull turn out. I am hoping there will be no more stillborn calves, but I am pretty nervous. We have had the same thing happen the last few years. We start the calving season with a few early born dead calves. I would really like to figure this out.

 

[Katpau]

I want to add that all calves receive boosters to their vaccinations, and yearling replacement heifers get the vaccinations in both the Spring and Fall of their first year. Older cows are vaccinated on a yearly basis. If you or anyone else has any thoughts on what could be causing these abortions, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you

 

[Big Cheese]

We use Triangle 10. It gets Lepto and BVD and more. We vaccinate once a year that's what it says to do on the bottle and that's what our vet told us to do. When you start giving it it says give a booster 6 weeks later and we did that the first year we started with it and now we are on a once a year program.

 

[inyati13]

I want to add that all calves receive boosters to their vaccinations, and yearling replacement heifers get the vaccinations in both the Spring and Fall of their first year. Older cows are vaccinated on a yearly basis. If you or anyone else has any thoughts on what could be causing these abortions, I would love to hear your thoughts.
Thank you

I like my family practice doctor. I like my vet. Nevertheless, it has been my experience that it takes persistent effort to get the tough questions and problems solved. You have taken the first steps. You have a vet that is on a path toward finding some answers. You have raised the issue here. When you get your written report, you will have something to base further discussions on with your vet. Push it to completion as best you can. Look at the organisms that cause reproductive issues. Look at organisms that cause respiratory disease. Those two over-lap. Good luck.

 

[regolith]

The timing of lepto vaccination has been discussed on this boards before, and in some areas producers do vaccinate every six months on their vet's advice.

It's a real tricky one - for the most part, you wouldn't know if lepto was causing problems in your herd or not unless you managed to test a slipped fetus and membranes positive for it. Now most farmers here probably lose <2% mid - late term pregnancies, most of them aren't observed till the cows cycle and even when the fetus is found it's rare that anyone would test it until there was a cluster of cases.

Vaccination might be the best tool we have but won't prevent every instance of lepto as there are more strains/mutations of strains than it's practical to vaccinate against.

 

[jerry27150]

if they abort from lepto it is usually in the 5-6 month range, would sound like you may have some other problem

 

[regolith]

We have had the same thing happen the last few years. We start the calving season with a few early born dead calves. I would really like to figure this out.

I wondered how many cows. Any time I've worked more than 300 I see this but it's 'one or two', not a few. At less than 200 cows probably every second season starts with an early dead calf. I put it down to natural variability (they're a lot more noticeable arriving a month ahead of calving than during calving) or stress from transport or possibly management as they're not yet being observed as they would be during calving. So I think if you had 600 - 1000 cows your experience would fall within the expectations of normal, if it's a 100 cows it's really bad.

 

[Big Cheese]

Older farmers say you need to expect to lose 10% of your calf crop every year. That's with all causes....born dead, weather, coyotes, buzzards, anything that could take a calf out. As cattle farmers you do everything you can to prevent it but Mother Nature has her ways of getting everything she is suppose to get.

 

[Katpau]

We only run calve about 50 cows, so the numbers are high. Our problem seemed to start in 2012. We had an AI bred cow have a still born calf on day 260 of gestation. She showed no signs of being ready to calf the night before. Another cow lost a full term calf whose head was back. It was a very difficult delivery, and I suspect the calf was dead inside her for several days. A third cow had a small weak calf with a bleeding umbilical we had to tie off. That one recovered. In 2013 there were no problems, but last year we lost three and had one calf (a twin) born with a deformed mouth. Two of the deaths were a set of twins. We had to pull the first one out of an older cow who had large calves in the past without assistance. It was a very hard pull, even with the calf puller. The calf was dead, and appeared to have been dead for days. We should have checked for a twin, but the calf was 90 pounds and it was dark out, raining, and about 35 degrees. We were exhausted, and I was sure there could not be a twin to such a large calf. The next morning we found her with another dead calf half way out. That one looked like it might have been alive, but it was still in the sack and the cow had given up. It fell out when she stood up, before we even got to her. A few days latter a heifer gave birth to a tiny dead calf with white eyes.

I am hoping the lab will reveal something that can be fixed, but I am afraid we still won't know. It took me all day to get in contact with the Vet. My regular Vet was off for the day, and the other was busy with emergencies. My regular Vet has given me his private cell phone number, and he did call me back, even though it was his day off. We don't have cell service on the ranch, and I played phone tag with him on the home phone much of the day, but finally talked to him that evening. I offered to bring everything into the clinic, but he said he would rather come out. He came out the next morning. We got the blood and placenta, and cut up the calf. The lab is over 100 miles away. We sent everything that day, but it was too late on a Friday, so nothing was looked at until 4 days after the birth.

My cows are on about 40 acres of gentle hills with oak trees during the last two to three months before calving. Much of the ranch has Pine, so I keep them in this pasture to avoid that. With this number of animals on such a small area, there is very little forage, so I am feeding them hay, alfalfa, and some Rye grass screening pellets. I test my hay and feed them a diet that is balanced for protein, TDN and all minerals. We have free choice salt and minerals balanced for this area available at all times. The tests showed their selenium levels were within a good range, but their copper was just a tiny bit high. The Vet said it was not enough to be a concern. Copper & selenium are extremely low in this area, so I was supplementing it with a mineral premix. The cows look really good.

 

[inyati13]

Katpau:
In regard to the duration of immunity you inquired about above, please read this edit from the Merck Veterinary Manual.

Bovine leptospirosis vaccines available in the USA and Canada are pentavalent and contain leptospiral serovars pomona, grippotyphosa, canicola, icterohaemorrhagiae, and hardjo. These vaccines provide good protection against disease caused by each of these serovars, with the possible exception of serovar hardjo. Experimental and field evidence indicates that some traditional 5-way leptospirosis vaccines do not provide good protection from serovar hardjo infection. New vaccines have been introduced to address this issue. If a primary goal of a vaccination program is protection of cattle against hardjo, care should be taken in selection of a vaccine product. In general, annual vaccination of all cattle in a closed herd or low incidence area, or twice-yearly vaccination in an open herd or high incidence area, is the most effective approach to control.

Italic and underline added by edit. Pentavalent means it includes bacterin for five species (or serovars) which are the five underlined above. They are all of the genus, Leptospira. As mentioned about the duration of Pfizer Spirovac VL5 and Big Cheese mentioned about Triangle 10, a least some current vaccines will provide 12 months of protection if the level of titers resulting from the initial vaccination protocols are achieved.

I hope you resolve this. I read your last post above. Your concern is obvious. I like to think every calf can be saved.

 

[Katpau]

Thank you for your responses,
I am looking forward to the complete report. This information should help me better understand and discuss the findings if it is Lepto. I have copied and saved the information posted here and on the "Pathogenic" thread. jerry 27150 says this usually happens in the 5 to 6 month stage. That may explain why this year I suddenly had cows come back in heat in Sept. when I was sure they were bred when the bulls were removed in July. And last year I actually witnessed the results of 2 cows aborting in Nov. They should have been at about 5 to 6 months. That makes 4 cows losing 5 calves in 2014 including the twins and the one with white eyes. All of these cows have been culled except the last ones this year. For years I only kept enough heifers to replace the really old cows, but now I am being forced to keep more and more. I am thinking of giving some of these young cows another chance. I am also wondering if there might be something growing in my pasture that causes abortions.

 

[Lucky_P]

katpau,
1:1600 Lepto titer would be suggestive...but not conclusive. It would be unusual to see a hardjo titer that high, even in a L.hardjo-bovis abortion case.
Think you and your vet need to also consider Neospora caninum as a possibility. Your scenario/history is more suggestive of Neospora than Lepto, to me.
http://afsdairy.ca.uky.edu/extension/re ... oracaninum