“Overuse of antibiotics is a very significant threat to our industry,” stated Pamela Ruegg, DVM, Michigan State University as she addressed a crowd of dairy producers at the Great Lakes Regional Dairy Conference in Mt. Pleasant, Michigan. 

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has confirmed the detection of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in dairy herds in Idaho, New Mexico (two cases) and Ohio this week.

The USDA, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) jointly released a statement on March 25 confirming the identification of highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) in dairy cattle. Here are several preventive measures for farms to protect their animals and best practices for herds affected by the avian influenza.

On March 25, the USDA released that unpasteurized, clinical samples of milk from sick cattle collected from two dairy farms in Kansas and one in Texas, as well as an oropharyngeal swab from another dairy in Texas, have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI).

Calving is not a disease; it is a stage that needs to be managed and how that is done will impact a cow for her entire lactation. Best practices for transitioning a cow from far-off fresh to her lactation group has a host of areas that need focused attention by the entire management team on the dairy. 

The immune system is the body’s military. It is tasked with being able to recognize pathogenic invaders that have entered the body and eliminate them as quickly as possible.

Determining the infecting bacteria type allows for a more guided treatment decision. Not all producers can work with a veterinarian to culture milk samples, and results from on-farm culturing can be difficult to interpret. However, being able to at least categorize the infecting pathogen can provide valuable information.

Milk Urea Nitrogen or MUN is a way to see if a dairy farm’s feeding program is a success. A MUN screening test can be performed on a milk sample collected from a cow.