Page 8 - Livestock Matters - Summer 2014

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Veterinary surgeon
Colin Lindsay
XLVets practice
Capontree Veterinary
Centre
A custom-made vaccine helps restore
health and performance of a dairy
herd with
Mycoplasma infections
Duncan Maughan
Gateshaw Mill
MYCOP LASMA
7
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
Cumbrian dairy farmer
Duncan Maughan
and his vet
Colin Lindsay
of Capontree Vets had been puzzling over
why the herd was performing so poorly despite a series of
investigations and changes in management and nutrition.
Eventually, a series of events led to the
discovery of not just one Mycoplasma
infection but two - M.bovis and M.wenyonii.
An autogenous vaccine could be made to
give cows protection against M.bovis but
not M.wenyonii. However, this single
Mycoplasma vaccine has helped to restore
health and performance of the herd.
Grumbling poor
performance
At Gateshaw Mill near Carlisle, Duncan
Maughan had been buying in cattle from
multiple sources. By September of 2012,
he had brought the herd number up to 200
milking cows.
But during the summer of 2012, the herd
suffered a number of abortions and poor
fertility. Investigations revealed the presence
of BVD, and through a herd screen, a PI
animal was identified and culled, and a
BVD vaccination programme started.
However, herd performance was still poorer
than expected - despite improvements to herd
nutrition and treatment for fluke infection.
Over the winter of 2012/13, Colin and
Duncan worked together and reviewed herd
management, heat detection, bull fertility,
nutrition and even AI technique.
‘Cows didn’t want to come into the parlour
- so we even checked it for stray voltage
but still couldn’t find anything wrong,’
explains Duncan.
Clinical outbreak
Then in April last year, Duncan experienced
a catastrophic 24 hours: ‘I called Colin after
the evening’s milking. Cows had gone acutely
lame, milk yield had fallen dramatically, and
they had blotchy skin on their udders.’
Colin adds: ‘When I got to the farm, many
cows had red swollen teats and udders.
A large proportion of the herd was stiff and
lame - the fetlock and hock joint were swollen
to the point that some cows couldn’t even
get up.’
Over the following days, more cows
deteriorated, and did not respond to
antibiotics. Mastitis cases also increased and
failed to respond to antibiotic treatment.
Two cows were sacrificed so that tissue
samples could be sent to the laboratory.
Joint fluid was also taken from a calf. Colin
suspected the cause was the bacterium
Mycoplasma bovis and specifically asked
for this to be tested for. He was right.
‘I’d made sure the laboratory kept the isolate,
and asked them to make an autogenous
vaccine. This would be specific to the strain
of M.bovis found on the farm, and should
have resolved the problem.’
But it didn’t. Mastitis cases continued with
cows failing to respond to treatment.
More tissue and fluid samples were taken
and a second Mycoplasma species was
identified; M.wenyonii. Colin adds; ‘On its
own, this bacterium is simple to treat. But the
presence of the two species explains why it
was so hard to get to the cause of the herd’s
poor health and performance. Unfortunately
the autogenous vaccine could only be made
up against M.bovis and not M.wenyonii.
So after consultation with the VLA, we made
the decision to give the cows as much
protection as possible and go ahead with the
autogenous vaccine for the one infection, in
the hope that they would then be able to
better cope with the M.wenyonii infection.’