Holstein World:  In your opinion, what are the major animal health issues facing dairy farmers today?

Russ Wirt:  As always, biosecurity on our farm is a major concern that needs to be addressed by each dairy.  It is not necessarily the responsibility of the government.

While Johnnes disease is front and center right now, it has always been a management disease.  Keeping manure from being ingested by all animals will do a lot to limit this disease.  Feeding new born calves with colostrum from a healthy dam is also a must.  We do need better tests to really test our way to less spread of this disease.

BVD and other virus diseases are just as big a threat to our herds. In Minnesota and a few other states, we have seen the reemergence of TB.  In Minnesota the source of the infection is believed to come from cattle from the south and in Michigan the source is believed to be the deer herd.

In southeast Minnesota, salmonella has been a source of serious loss.  A number of dairies are now vaccinating for salmonella with good protection.  Birds and rodents in feed supply and feeding areas are believed to be a source of infection.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, December 13th, 2006 at 9:08 am by sschmidt and is filed under Guest Blogger Series. Hits for this post:1148 You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.