Researchers detect prions with skin tests

Researchers detect prions with skin tests

Research: News Roundup from the March 2019 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Researchers have successfully detected prions in inoculated rodents using two methods, Science Daily reports. Prions are protein particles that cause BSE in cattle, chronic wasting disease in elk and deer, and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in humans. Right now detecting the disease is difficult, generally requiring a biopsy or autopsy so brain tissue can be examined. Dr. […] Read more

a cow with Johne's disease

Narrowing in on Johne’s Disease

Research on the Record with Reynold Bergen

Johne’s disease is caused by a bacterium (Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis, or MAP) that was discovered in 1895 by a heavily bearded, bespectacled bacteriologist from Dresden named Heinrich Albert Johne. When a cow develops persistent, watery, smelly hosepipe diarrhea, and progressively loses weight and body condition, even though her appetite is normal and she isn’t running […] Read more


The industry needs to be aware that C. jejuni exists within most herds and feedlots.

C. jejuni – an ever-present and often forgotten bacteria

Vet Advice with Dr. Ron Clarke

Campylobacter jejuni (CAMP-EE-LO-BACK-TER JE-JUNE-EYE) is the most common cause of bacterial diarrhea in the North America, causing an estimated 1.5 million human diarrheal illnesses annually. Infections are common in young children, and young adults between the ages of 18 to 29. Asymptomatic human carriers are rare. Most human cases are caused through contact with animals […] Read more

Although the efficacy of blackleg vaccines is occasionally disputed in North America, there are few veterinary practitioners who would be comfortable convincing producers to stop using the vaccine.

A vaccine that saved the cattle industry

Vet Advice with Dr. Ron Clarke

Blackleg, a disease of many ruminants, is universal. It is most commonly seen in sheep, cattle and goats. Outbreaks have been reported in farmed bison and deer. The acute nature of the disease makes successful treatment difficult. Although the efficacy of commonly used blackleg vaccines has been disputed by the occasional academic based on the […] Read more


a cow with Johne's disease

Johne’s found in three per cent of cows in Sask. surveillance program

Health: News Roundup from the September 2017 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Saskatchewan’s Johne’s Disease Surveillance Program has been very successful in that voluntary participation by cow-calf producers has increased every year to the point where there has been a waiting list the last two years. On the flip side, it has confirmed many participants’ fears of finding positive animals. From November 2013 to March 2017, there […] Read more

cattle grazing

It’s that anthrax time of year

Animal Health: News Roundup from the June 2017 issue of Canadian Cattlemen

Anthrax spores can lurk in soil for decades and there’s no telling where the disease will pop up from year to year. All it takes is something that brings spores to the surface and the stage is set for an outbreak in cattle that happen to ingest them. Predicting when anthrax will occur in Canada […] Read more


(USDA.gov via Flickr)

USDA analyzing effects of wild pigs on crops, livestock

Chicago | Reuters –– The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) said Friday it has started analyzing for the first time data it has collected on the impact that wild pigs have on U.S. farmers’ crop and livestock operations. It is estimated by federal and state agricultural officials that there are more than five million wild […] Read more

a cow with Johne's disease

Disease transmission in livestock is not uniform

The unprecedented increase of emerging infectious diseases in wild and domestic animals and humans does not follow predictable patterns. Disease outbreaks like influenza H5N2 in birds — especially recent incursions of the virus affecting turkeys in Central Canada and Midwestern U.S.; human Ebola in West Africa; equine herpes virus (EHV1) in North America, and five […] Read more


Herders with machine guns intensify South Sudan land, food woes

Rome | Thomson Reuters Foundation — Tensions are rising in South Sudan as displaced pastoralists migrate onto lands occupied by farming communities, stoking a new series of conflicts in the war-torn nation and threatening food supplies, a United Nations official said Friday. Due to changes in migration patterns because of violence, the world’s youngest country […] Read more

Photo: State of Delaware website

U.S. researchers develop CWD vaccine

Researchers at NYU Langone Medical Center and elsewhere say that a vaccination they have developed to fight a brain-based, wasting syndrome among deer and other animals may hold promise on two additional fronts: Protecting U.S. livestock from contracting the disease, and preventing similar brain infections in humans. The study, to be published in Vaccine online […] Read more