Effects of dystocia and confined calving on calf-morbidity rate from birth to weaning

An analysis was performed on data from a national survey of US beef cow-calf producers to quantify the effects of management factors on calf-morbidity risk from birth to weaning. The analysis included 2,490 herds from 23 states. A high calf-morbidity herd was defined as one with greater than 10% morbidity. The rate of dystocia in the herd was categorized into five levels. All dystocia levels were associated significantly with increased risk of being a high calf-morbidity herd. Having greater than 70% of cows and heifers calve in confinement also was associated with increased risk of being a high calf-morbidity herd. Approximately 40% of herds experienced high morbidity from the effect of dystocia and approximately 10% from the effect of confined calving. This analysis indicates that dystocia and confined calving are important factors in determining a herd’s calfmorbidity rate from birth to weaning

Quantification and prevalence of Salmonella in beef cattle presenting at slaughter

Aims: A survey to determine the prevalence and numbers of Salmonella in beef cattle presented for slaughter at abattoirs across Australia was conducted between September 2002 and January 2003. Methods and Results: Automated immunomagnetic separation (AIMS) was used for detection and isolation of Salmonella enriched from cattle faeces. Salmonella were enumerated from positive samples using a combination of the Most Probable Number (MPN) technique and AIMS. A total of 310 faecal samples were tested, 155 were from lot-fed cattle and 155 from grass-fed cattle. Salmonella spp. were isolated from 21 (6.8%) of the cattle and the prevalence amongst grass-fed cattle (4.5%) was not significantly different to that found in lot-fed cattle (9%). Counts of Salmonella in positive faeces varied fro