Regional heterogeneity and unexpectedly high abundance of Cooperia punctata in beef cattle at a northern latitude revealed by ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding

Background The species composition of cattle gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) communities can vary greatly between regions. Despite this, there is remarkably little large-scale surveillance data for cattle GIN species which is due, at least in part, to a lack of scalable diagnostic tools. This lack of regional GIN species-level data represents a major knowledge gap for evidence-based parasite management and assessing the status and impact of factors such as climate change and anthelmintic drug resistance. Methods This paper presents a large-scale survey of GIN in beef herds across western Canada using ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding. Individual fecal samples were collected from 6 to 20 randomly selected heifers (n = 1665) from each of 85 herds between September 2016 and February 2017 and 10–25 first season calves (n = 824) from each of 42 herds between November 2016 and February 2017. Results Gastrointestinal nematode communities in heifers and calves were similar in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora being the predominant GIN species in all herds consistent with previous studies. However, in Manitoba, Cooperia punctata was the predominant species overall and the most abundant GIN species in calves from 4/8 beef herds. Conclusions This study revealed a marked regional heterogeneity of GIN species in grazing beef herds in western Canada. The predominance of C. punctata in Manitoba is unexpected, as although this parasite is often the predominant cattle GIN species in more southerly latitudes, it is generally only a minor component of cattle GIN communities in northern temperate regions. We hypothesize that the unexpected predominance of C. punctata at such a northerly latitude represents a range expansion, likely associated with changes in climate, anthelmintic use, management, and/or animal movement. Whatever the cause, these results are of practical concern since C. punctata is more pathogenic than C. oncophora, the Cooperia species that typically predominates in cooler temperate regions. Finally, this study illustrates the value of ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding as a surveillance tool for ruminant GIN parasites. Graphical Abstract

Hypomagnesemia in beef cattle from the central region of Argentina: retrospective study

ABSTRACT: Hypomagnesaemia (grass tetany) is a metabolic disorder of ruminants due to a reduced dietary intake of magnesium (primary deficiency), incorrect digestibility or associated metabolic factors reducing Mg intake (secondary deficiency). Grass tetany is a production disease responsible for important economic losses in beef herds from Argentina. Several factors influence the development of grass tetany in cattle, including physiological status, weather, soil and forage. This research described a retrospective analysis over the past 20 years, revising the cases of beef cattle clinical hypomagnesaemia registered at the Veterinary Diagnostic Service in INTA Balcarce, Argentina.

Modeling the Effect of Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus in Australian Beef Herds

Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) is an economically important disease in Australian beef farming. The disease typically results in low-level production losses that can be difficult to detect for several years. Simulation modeling can be used to support the decision to control BVDV; however, current BVDV simulation models do not adequately reflect the extensive farming environment of Australian beef production. Therefore, the objective of this study was to develop a disease simulation model to explore the impact of BVDV on beef cattle production in south-east Australia. A dynamic, individual-based, stochastic, discrete-time simulation model was created to simulate within-herd transmission of BVDV in a seasonal, self-replacing beef herd. We used the model to simulate the effect of herd size and BVDV introduction time on disease transmission and assessed the short- and long-term impact of BVDV on production outputs that influence the economic performance of beef farms. We found that BVDV can become established in a herd after a single PI introduction in 60% of cases, most frequently associated with the breeding period. The initial impact of BVDV will be more severe in smaller herds, although self-elimination is more likely in small herds than in larger herds, in which there is a 23% chance that the virus can persist for >15 years following a single incursion in a herd with 800 breeders. The number and weight of steers sold was reduced in the presence of BVDV and the results demonstrated that repeat incursions exacerbate long-term production losses, even when annual losses appear marginal. This model reflects the short- and long-term production losses attributed to BVDV in beef herds in southeast Australia and provides a foundation from which the influence and economic utility of BVDV prevention in Australian beef herds can be assessed.

Dairy vs. beef production – expert views on welfare

Consumers’ views and concerns about the welfare of farm animals may play an important role in their decision to consume dairy, meat and/or plants as their primary protein source. As animals are killed prematurely in both dairy and beef industries, it is important to quantify and compare welfare compromise in these two sectors before the point of death. Seventy world-leading bovine welfare experts based in 23 countries, were asked to evaluate the likelihood of a bovine to experience 12 states of potential welfare concern, inspired by the Welfare Quality® protocol. The evaluation focused on the most common beef and dairy production systems in the experts’ country, and was carried out separately for dairy/beef calves raised for red-meat, dairy/beef calves raised for veal, dairy/beef calves raised as replacement, and for dairy/beef cows. The results show experts rated the overall likelihood of a negative welfare state (i.e. welfare risk) to be higher in animals from dairy herds than from beef herds, for all animal categories, regardless of whether they were used to produce milk, red-meat or veal. These findings suggest that consuming food products derived from common dairy production systems (dairy or meat), may be more harmful to the welfare of animals than consuming products derived from common beef production systems (i.e. from animals solely raised for their meat). Raising awareness about the linkage between dairy and meat production, and the toll of milk production on the welfare state of animals in the dairy industry, may encourage a more sustainable and responsible food consumption.

Beef productivity of steers of Kalmyk breed of different breeding

The success of the development of beef cattle breeding in the Republic of Buryatia mostly depends on the effectiveness of using animals of Kalmyk breed of different origins in order to increase beef production. The study of the productive traits and expediency of using the gene pool of Kalmyk breed from other regions in comparison with the animals of local selection when breeding beef herds has practical and scientifi c significance. The purpose of the research was to study the productive traits of cattle of Kalmyk breed imported from various climatic zones of Russia. For the experiment, 3 groups of newborn calves of Kalmyk breed of different breeding of 15 heads in each have been selected according to the principle of analogues. The 1st group consisted of steers Kalmyk breed of Buryat breeding, the 2nd – of Kalmyk breeding, the 3rd group – of Rostov breeding. During rearing and feeding, the steers were in the same feeding and housing conditions. During the growth process, the largest live weight at the age of 7 months has been observed in the 1st group of steers received from parents of local reproduction. They surpassed the herdmates of the 2nd group by 3,1 kg or 1,7 %, and the 3rd group by 4,8 kg or 2,7 %. With age the differences in live weight increased at 14 and 18 months the steers of Buryat breeding exceeded their herdmates of the 2nd group by 10,6 kg or 3,4 % and 15,7 kg or 3,8 % (P > 0,95) and the 3rd group by 16,8 kg or 5,4 % (P > 0,95) and 23,5 kg or 5,8 % (Р > 0,99), respectively. A comparative study of the beef productivity of steers of Kalmyk breed obtained under the conditions of the Republic of Buryatia and imported from the Republic of Kalmykia and the Rostov region has shown the advantage of the animals of Buryat breeding, while the herdmates of Rostov selection were the worst, and Kalmyk breeding steers occupied an intermediate position.

Regional Heterogeneity and an Unexpectedly High Abundance of Cooperia Punctata in Beef Cattle at Northern Latitude Were Revealed by ITS-2 rDNA Nemabiome Metabarcoding

BackgroundThe species composition of cattle gastrointestinal nematode (GIN) communities can vary greatly between regions. Despite this, there is remarkably little large-scale surveillance data for cattle GIN species which is due, at least in part, to a lack of scalable diagnostic tools. This lack of regional GIN species-level data represents a major knowledge gap for evidence-based parasite management and assessing the status and impact of factors such as climate change and anthelmintic drug resistance. MethodsThis paper presents a large-scale survey of GIN in beef herds across western Canada using ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding. Individual fecal samples were collected from 6–20 randomly selected heifers (n = 1665) from each of 85 herds between September 2016 and February 2017 and 10–25 first season calves (n = 824) from each of 42 herds between November 2016 and February 2017. ResultsGastrointestinal nematode communities in heifers and calves were similar in Alberta and Saskatchewan, with Ostertagia ostertagi and Cooperia oncophora being the predominant GIN species in all herds consistent with previous studies. However, in Manitoba, Cooperia punctata was the most predominant species overall and the most abundant GIN species in calves from 4/8 beef herds. ConclusionsThis study revealed a marked regional heterogenicity of GIN species in grazing beef herds in western Canada. The predominance of C. punctata in Manitoba is unexpected as although this parasite is often the most predominant cattle GIN species in more southerly latitudes, it is generally only a minor component of cattle GIN communities in northern temperate regions. We hypothesize that the unexpected predominance of C. punctata at such a northerly latitude represents a range expansion, likely associated with changes in climate, anthelmintic use, management, and/or animal movement. Whatever the cause, these results are of practical concern since C. punctata is more pathogenic than C. oncophora, the Cooperia species that typically predominates in cooler temperate regions. Finally, this study illustrates the value of ITS-2 rDNA nemabiome metabarcoding as a surveillance tool for ruminant GIN parasites.

Calculating Reproductive Performance in Beef Operations: The University of Florida Beef Herds' 2019 Breeding Season

This publication reviews the basic calculations of reproductive performance and reports the reproductive performance of two University of Florida beef herds. Written by Mario Binelli, Angela M. Gonella-Diaza, Thiago Martins, Cecilia C. Rocha, Felipe A. C. C. Silva, Federico Tarnonsky, Sergio Roskopf, Owen Rae, Danny Driver, Nicolas DiLorenzo, Jose Dubeux, and David Thomas, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Animal Sciences, May 2021.

Genetic and non-genetic factors associated with health and vitality traits in beef calves

Awareness and interest in calf health and wellbeing is intensifying, prompting change in the management and breeding decisions of producers and associated policy-makers. The objectives of the present study were to 1) quantify the risk factors associated with subjectively-measured scores of vigour and birth size as well as diagnoses of scour and pneumonia in a large national dataset of beef calves, and 2) to estimate the contribution of genetic variance to such phenotypic measures. After edits, the data consisted of health and birth size data subjectively scored by producers on 88,207 calves born in 6,126 Irish beef herds. Vigour was recorded on a scale of 1 (very poor) to 5 (very good). Birth size was also scored on a scale of 1 (very small) to 5 (very large). Scour and pneumonia were both scored independently based on the suspected number of occurrence of each (0 = no occurrence, 1 = one occurrence or 2 = more than one occurrence). On average, 14.7% of calves were recorded as having had at least one occurrence of scour within the first 5 months of life, whereas 6.4% of calves were recorded as having had at least one occurrence of pneumonia within the first 5 months of life. Relative to female calves, male calves had a worse vigour score and a suspected greater incidence of both scour and pneumonia. Relative to singletons, twins were, on average, smaller at birth, they had a worse vigour score, and they were more prone to scour. Calves born in the later periods of the calving season (i.e., late and very late) had a greater incidence of scour relative to calves in the herd born earlier in the calving season. Heritability estimates for vigour, birth size and pneumonia were 0.12 (0.02), 0.33 (0.03) and 0.08 (0.02), respectively; no genetic variance was detected for scour. Breeding for vigorous calves that are less susceptible to pneumonia could provide producers with an additional strategy to ensure consumer concerns regarding food quality, safety and calf wellbeing are being met.