Conceptualising Disruptions in British Beef and Sheep Supply Chains during the COVID-19 Crisis

© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license.(https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This paper explores the impacts of the COVID-19 crisis as a disruptor to Britain’s beef and sheep supply chains. The assessment of COVID-19 impacts is based on the triangulation of farming and industry news reports, submissions to a government COVID-19 enquiry and interviews with industry experts. We find that livestock farming and farm services were least affected compared to processing, retailing, foodservice, or consumers. Primary and secondary processors continued to operate during the first COVID-19 lockdown but had to quickly become ‘COVID secure’. The most dramatic effect was the overnight closure of hospitality and catering and the redirection of supplies to the retail sector. This picture of a resilient British beef and sheep industry may also be conceptualised as relatively locked in and resistant to change. Red meat production is tied to the land it farms on and operates on 12−36-month production cycles, making it difficult to change trajectory if disruptions do not directly affect farming. Emerging changes in agricultural payments, trade post-Brexit, and societal and environmental pressures may well be the disruptors that have far-reaching impacts on the beef and sheep supply chains.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Can 100% Pasture-Based Livestock Farming Produce Enough Ruminant Meat to Meet the Current Consumption Demand in the UK?

© 2023 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY), https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Grassland is grouped into temporary, permanent, and rough grazing types in the United Kingdom (UK), making up more than 60% of the national agricultural land area. It provides avenues for grazed fodder or ensiled forage contributing a large proportion of the diets consumed by cattle and sheep. The official agricultural census data in 2011 to 2020 showed that, on average, UK cattle and sheep farming can produce meat to satisfy 83.3 and 100.8% of domestic cattle beef and sheep meat consumption levels, respectively. Out of the large agricultural census datasets, we used the populations of cattle and sheep, as well as the UK definition of a standard livestock unit (SLU), to normalise the respective herd populations into a total standard livestock unit (TSLU). We then used the annual domestic meat production in dressed carcass weight to calculate cattle and sheep meat productivity per SLU. Using the potential herbal dry matter yields per year and areas of the different grassland types across the UK, the potential total available pasture feed was calculated. This potential production of herbal biomass was translated into the potential carrying capacity expressed in a TSLU. This total potential carrying capacity was partitioned into cattle and sheep sectors so that the routes of pasture-based-only options with which to produce ruminant meat to meet the current UK domestic consumption demands were assessed. The estimated mean potential annual pasture forage feed in 2011–2020 was approximately 82.0 million (M) metric tonnes (t), which can be translated into a potential carrying capacity of 17.9 M SLUs compared with the current mean 9.36 M SLUs in the survey data of the UK. With the ratio of sheep to cattle at 8.2:25 in the national TSLU, the UK national demands at present consumption levels of cattle and sheep meat can be arithmetically met with pasture grass utilisation rates at or above 65% and 50% by cattle and sheep farming systems, respectively.Peer reviewe

A probabilistic approach to the interpretation of milk antibody results for diagnosis of Johne’s disease in dairy cattle

Johne’s disease is a serious wasting disease of ruminants that is of high economic importance for the dairy sector in particular. The chronic nature of the disease, the fluctuations in antibody levels and the limited ability of diagnostic tests to identify cows at early stages of infection are huge challenges for the control of the disease. In the United Kingdom, the latter is commonly based on repeated milk ELISA testing of lactating cows, followed by selected culling and improved management practices around calving. In this paper, the dataset built through a large quarterly screening programme conducted in the United Kingdom since 2010 is used to investigate the use of milk ELISA testing for Johne’s disease management. Over the study period, 13,509 out of 281,558 cows were identified as high-risk of being infected and shedding mycobacteria in the faeces, based on a case definition of at least two consecutive positive milk ELISA results. Around a third of them were kept in the dairy herd a year or more after being classified as high-risk. However, 16% of these cows did not have any further positive test, suggesting that they might be uninfected animals. The mean specificity and sensitivity of the milk ELISA test were estimated at 99.5% and 61.8%, respectively. The cows in the dataset are categorised in different result groups according to the number of positive test results and whether they are classified as high-risk according to the programme’s case definition. The posterior probability of infection is calculated after each test in order to investigate the impact of repeated testing on the belief in a cow’s infection status. The interpretation of the results show that most cows classified as high-risk are very likely to be infected, while some other groups that do not match the case definition could reasonably be considered as infected too. Our results show that there is considerable potential for more targeted use of serological testing, including adjusting the testing frequency and implementing the posterior probability approach

Unravelling transmission of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis to dairy calves: results of a lifelong longitudinal study

Johne's disease (JD) is a chronic disease of ruminants endemic in the UK and other countries and responsible for large economic losses for the dairy sector. JD is caused by Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), which typically infects calves that remain latently infected during a long period, making early detection of infection challenging. Cow to calf transmission can occur in-utero, via milk/colostrum or faecal-orally. Understanding of the different transmission routes to calves is important in informing control recommendations. Our aim in this longitudinal study was to measure the association between the transmission routes via the dam and the environment on a calf subsequently testing serologically positive for MAP. The study population comprised of 439 UK dairy calves from 6 herds enrolled between 2012 and 2013. These calves were followed up from birth until 2023. At birth individual calf data was captured. During follow-up, individuals entering the milking herd were quarterly tested for the presence of MAP antibodies using milk ELISA. Cox regression models were used to measure the association between exposure from the dam (in-utero and/or colostrum) or from the environment (long time in dirty yard) and time to first detection of MAP infection. An association between calves born to positive dams and probability of having a MAP positive test result remained after excluding potential MAP transmission via colostrum (Hazard ratio: 2.24; 95% CI: 1.14 - 4.41). Calves unlikely to be infected with MAP via the in-utero or colostrum route, had 3.68 (95% CI: 3.68 1.45-9.33) higher hazard of a positive test result when they stayed longer in a dirty calving area. The effect of the dam infection status on transmission to calves precedes the dam's seroconversion and persists after excluding the potential role of transmission via colostrum. The association between time spent in a dirty calving area and probability of a MAP positive test result highlights the role of environmental contamination as a source of infection in addition to the dam. [Abstract copyright: Copyright © 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Antimicrobial & antiparasitic use and resistance in British sheep and cattle: a systematic review

A variety of antimicrobials and antiparasitics are used to treat British cattle and sheep to ensure animal welfare, a safe food supply, and maintain farm incomes. However, with increasing global concern about antimicrobial resistance in human and animal populations, there is increased scrutiny of the use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals. This systematic review sought to identify and describe peer and non-peer reviewed sources, published over the last ten years, detailing the usage of, and resistance to, antimicrobials and antiparasitics in sheep and cattle farming systems in Britain as well as identify knowledge gaps. Applying the PRISMA review protocol and guidelines for including grey literature; Scopus, Web of Science, Medline, and government repositories were searched for relevant articles and reports. Seven hundred and seventy titles and abstracts and 126 full-text records were assessed, of which 40 scholarly articles and five government reports were included for data extraction. Antibiotic usage in sheep and cattle in Britain appear to be below the UK average for all livestock and tetracyclines and beta-lactam antibiotics were found to be the most commonly used. However, the poor level of coverage afforded to these species compared to other livestock reduced the certainty of these findings. Although resistance to some antibiotics (using Escherichia coli as a marker) appeared to have decreased in sheep and cattle in England and Wales over a five-year period (2013-2018), levels of resistance remain high to commonly used antibiotics. The small number and fragmented nature of studies identified by this review describing anthelmintic usage, and the lack of available national sales data, prevented the identification of trends in either sheep or cattle. We recommend that additional efforts are taken to collect farm or veterinary level data and argue that extraction of this data is imperative to the development of antimicrobial and antiparasitic resistance strategies in Britain, both of which are needed to reduce usage of these anti-infective agents, curb the development of resistance, and safeguard national agricultural production. Finally, metrics produced by this data should be generated in a way to allow for maximum comparability across species, sectors, and countries

Herd-level prevalence of selected endemic infectious diseases of dairy cows in Great Britain

To implement appropriate and effective disease control programs at national level, up-to-date and unbiased information on disease frequency is needed. The aim of this study was to estimate the prevalence of selected endemic infectious diseases in the population of dairy herds in Great Britain. Bulk milk tank (BMT) samples from 225 randomly selected dairy farms stratified by region and herd size were tested for antibodies against bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV), bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BHV-1), Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), Leptospira hardjo , Salmonella spp., Coxiella burnetii , Fasciola hepatica , Neospora caninum , and Ostertagia ostertagi . Furthermore, the presence of BVDV, C. burnetii and Chlamydia-like organisms was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The apparent herd prevalence was estimated as a weighted proportion of positive herds. The true prevalence was calculated when a test was used with known test characteristics for the cut-off value used. Amongst unvaccinated herds, the true prevalence ofBMT antibodies against BVDV was estimated at 66% (95% Confidence 47 Interval, CI: 56-77%), MAP 68% (95% CI: 59-77%), BHV-1 62% (95% CI: 52-73%), L. hardjo 47% (95% CI: 34-60%) and Salmonella spp. 48% (95% CI: 39-56%). The apparent prevalence of BMT antibodies against C. burnetii was 80% (95% CI: 75-85%), F. hepatica 55% (95% CI: 48- 62%), N. caninum 46% (95% CI: 38-54%), and O. ostertagi 95% (95% CI: 91-98%). BVDV, C. burnetii and Chlamydia-like antigens were detected in 5% (95% CI: 2-9%), 29% (95% CI: 21-36%) and 31% (95% CI: 24-38%) of herds, respectively. Our results show that dairy cows across GB are frequently exposed to the studied pathogens, which are endemic at high levels with some geographical variations. These prevalence estimates provide a much needed basis to assess whether nationwide control programs for the studied pathogens are justified by their potential economic, environmental and public health implications. Should surveillance and control programs be initiated, the estimates presented here are a baseline against which progress can be assessed

Closely related Lak megaphages replicate in the microbiomes of diverse animals.

Lak phages with alternatively coded ∼540 kbp genomes were recently reported to replicate in Prevotella in microbiomes of humans that consume a non-Western diet, baboons, and pigs. Here, we explore Lak phage diversity and broader distribution using diagnostic polymerase chain reaction and genome-resolved metagenomics. Lak phages were detected in 13 animal types, including reptiles, and are particularly prevalent in pigs. Tracking Lak through the pig gastrointestinal tract revealed significant enrichment in the hindgut compared to the foregut. We reconstructed 34 new Lak genomes, including six curated complete genomes, all of which are alternatively coded. An anomalously large (∼660 kbp) complete genome reconstructed for the most deeply branched Lak from a horse microbiome is also alternatively coded. From the Lak genomes, we identified proteins associated with specific animal species; notably, most have no functional predictions. The presence of closely related Lak phages in diverse animals indicates facile distribution coupled to host-specific adaptation

The Occurrence of Mycobacterium avium Subspecies paratuberculosis Positive Milk Antibody ELISA Results in Dairy Cattle under Varying Time Periods after Skin Testing for Bovine Tuberculosis

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA) are used to screen cows for Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) infections, informing Johne’s disease (JD) management practices in dairy herds. The causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), Mycobacterium bovis, and MAP share multiple antigens. Moreover, Mycobacterium avium subspecies avium is used in the single intradermal cervical comparative tests (SICCT) that are routinely used in early detection of cows infected with bTB. Although these are different types of immune responses, potentially the SICCT may interfere with the levels of MAP antibodies. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between the SICCT-MAP milk ELISA testing interval and apparent prevalence of JD risk statuses. Data from 51 herds were used, totalling 46,738 cow observations. The Poisson models showed that MAP milk ELISA testing at 14 day intervals post-SICCT statistically significantly increased the odds of detecting JD-positive cows compared to JD testing 85+ days post-SICCT. The odds ratio (OR) started at 2.5 in the first 14 day interval post-SICCT, increasing each two-week period to an OR of 4.0 at 57–70 days, to subsequently drop. Additionally, a herd history of bTB increased the odds of detecting JD-positive cows (OR = 1.2); this was relatively limited compared to the magnitude of the post-SICCT effect

Changing Veterinary Attitudes towards Delivering Biosecurity Advice to Beef Farmers

Biosecurity advice is an important way veterinarians can help farmers to reduce disease burdens on their farms. Many different factors are at play when delivering this advice, one being veterinary competence and their communication skills. This study looked at the private veterinary practitioners’ perceptions of their own competence to deliver biosecurity advice as part of a longitudinal biosecurity project. Their responses were collected in the form of a telephone questionnaire. The results showed significant increases in private veterinary practitioners’ responses to comfort (p = 0.022), capability (p = 0.002), and consistency (p = 0.006) as well as an increase of uptake of advice (p = 0.015) as the project progressed. The mean time spent delivering biosecurity advice increased and dropped subsequently, suggesting an initially more thorough and later on a more efficient process. The overall perceptions of the veterinarians of the study were also assessed. The results suggest development of the participating veterinarians following the conscious-competence learning model showing a need to improve the knowledge and training of future generations of private veterinary practitioners in the area of biosecurity with, in particular, an increased focus on the importance of the veterinarian–farmer relationship