Anaplasmosis - help

[Chap]

my partner is experiencing a trainwreck with anaplasmosis.  about 6 weeks ago he had a mature cow die suddenly in the pasture, post of the dead cow showed signs of jaundice and anemia, about 4 weeks later he had another cow die, but she was too far gone to post.  recently he had another bite the dust and had similar post results.  Sunday, we noticed a sluggish cow, we temped her to find she was 105.7 and very listless, anemia again, red blood counts below 20.  We did a blood transfusion on her of 3 pints from a healthy cow and she appears to be turning the corner and is starting to eat again.  Another cow died in sight on monday evening and  this morning he has 4 more cows that are showing signs.  He has spiked high levels of CTC in the feed to try prevention and yesterday hit all cows with a mega dose of LA 200.  This morning he is working on doing another transfusion on a cow with RBC count of 12.  We have never had a problem with this disease up this far north, (East Central IOWA) but it is a wiping out cows left and right and sure is hard on one's spirits.  We assume the disease was introduced into the naive herd from a group of cows that were bought from Southern IL this sping and was then transferred via needles used during sychronization in mid June.  This all leads me to ask 2 questions.  is there anything else we should be doing for prevention/treatment of this herd?  Secondly, my cows are about .5 miles away, should I be concerned about transmission to my herd and if so, is an aggressive prevention of high level CTC feeding sufficient to control an outbreak?  Lastly this is an FYI post to all of you who buy cattle from the south.  Although we have been raising cattle for 40 years in Iowa, and have never seen this before, it is a financial and emotional killer.  just another reason to be diligent on you selection of outside stock and be sure of there health status before introducing them to your herd.  thanks for you help and responses..... CHAP

 

[garybob]

my partner is experiencing a trainwreck with anaplasmosis.  about 6 weeks ago he had a mature cow die suddenly in the pasture, post of the dead cow showed signs of jaundice and anemia, about 4 weeks later he had another cow die, but she was too far gone to post.  recently he had another bite the dust and had similar post results.  Sunday, we noticed a sluggish cow, we temped her to find she was 105.7 and very listless, anemia again, red blood counts below 20.  We did a blood transfusion on her of 3 pints from a healthy cow and she appears to be turning the corner and is starting to eat again.  Another cow died in sight on monday evening and  this morning he has 4 more cows that are showing signs.  He has spiked high levels of CTC in the feed to try prevention and yesterday hit all cows with a mega dose of LA 200.  This morning he is working on doing another transfusion on a cow with RBC count of 12.  We have never had a problem with this disease up this far north, (East Central IOWA) but it is a wiping out cows left and right and sure is hard on one's spirits.  We assume the disease was introduced into the naive herd from a group of cows that were bought from Southern IL this sping and was then transferred via needles used during sychronization in mid June.  This all leads me to ask 2 questions.  is there anything else we should be doing for prevention/treatment of this herd?  Secondly, my cows are about .5 miles away, should I be concerned about transmission to my herd and if so, is an aggressive prevention of high level CTC feeding sufficient to control an outbreak?  Lastly this is an FYI post to all of you who buy cattle from the south.  Although we have been raising cattle for 40 years in Iowa, and have never seen this before, it is a financial and emotional killer.  just another reason to be diligent on you selection of outside stock and be sure of there health status before introducing them to your herd.  thanks for you help and responses..... CHAP

Go to the Feed Store & buy a pallet of ADM's "Big Red" Mineral with CTC, get some ground corn, mix it in there, and, get 'em to eat the dickens out of it. Watch for signs in your herd.

 

[DL]

CHAP - so sorry for the train wreck you find yoruself in

Little background
caused by a bacteria like agent caused Anaplasma marginale (similar to the cause of Ricky Mt Spotted Fever)
lives in the red blood cells (ie parasitized the RBCs ---> rupture----> anemia).
transmitted primarily by insect vectors - ticks and horse flies, although needles, instruments etc can be involved

tetracyclines are useful in the acute phase - I am sure your vet has given you doses; you also want to eliminate carriers
Insect control - fly tags, sprays etc
There is a Vaccine
Do not re use needles, clean surgical (castration) instruments, including ear tagging and implant instruments

so it looks like insect control and maybe the vaccine would help prevent spread...good luck if I find out anything else I'll let you know, dl

 

[chambero]

We put out mineral with tetracycline in the summer time.  I think my father-in-law had one cow that died from it over ten years ago.  We haven't had any with it since I've been around, but it is considered something worth spending a little money on prevention for.

 

[knabe]

on the topic of salt blocks, does anyone use the cobalt blue blocks with iodine? and what is the relative translation of posting ingredients on a ppm basis versus mg/kg.  i guess i can do the math easily enough, 1ppm equals 1 mg/kg, but what is the relative effectiveness of

2.5 ppm
1.0 ppm or is it ratio based for some of these ingredients?

looks like cobalt, copper, iron might be an alternative to the tet block?

 

[DL]

CHAP - I didn't read the entire post the first time (thought I did)

the other thing he/you need to consider after the dust settles is treating all potential carrier animals - even when the animal appears fine it may be a carrier and although the number of bugs inside the red blood cells (RBCs) might be so low as to not be visible - molecular tests can ID them - this requires longer treatment with tetracycline

You might want to consider vaccinating your herd - I would get with my vet asap - interestingly this disease infects young stock  but they do not show signs of illness - the older the cow the sicker they get

In places where anaplasma is endemic they may dip or spray cattle - I don't know how aggressive your insect control program is but you might want to beef it up

Good luck - this kind of thing is wicked on the soul, dl

 

[Chap]

a couple of days have passed and the death march has taken a break for now.  He still has a couple sorry looking cows, but he tells me they look better than they did 48 hours ago.  After review, we are pretty sure the transmission took place by using the same needle to administer Lut during synch program.  Nearly all in that group have shown clinical signs while the rest of the herd looks ok.  I have been using Cylence pour on and a bullet oiler with Permectin on my cows that are 1/2 mile away. 

 

[rtnok]

Down here in the south we  use a anaplas block that is a protien block and the cows consume them pretty steady ,they have high amounts of ctc in them. They are made by sweet licks. And  a good fly control helps alot.  Roni

 

[knabe]

Hi rtnok, thanks for the tip.  seen a few other products similar, but they don't have cobalt.  our local feed guru who does king feeds (John Throckmorton) is big on cobalt out here.  any thoughts on cobalt anyone?

 

[CAB]

    Different parts of the country are short in different elements. Here in Iowa, no one ever talks about cobalt, but Se, Mg, I, & Mn are considered  short in some cases.
  I always kind of get a chuckle out of some of the feed recipes. We are so lucky to live here in the corn belt. There are so many different feed ingredients that can be used for cattle, that'll vary to where you are located also. If you want a calf to smoke to market, it's all about calories and dry matter intake. Brent C.

 

[DL]

Hi rtnok, thanks for the tip.  seen a few other products similar, but they don't have cobalt.  our local feed guru who does king feeds (John Throckmorton) is big on cobalt out here.  any thoughts on cobalt anyone?

If I recall correctly cobalt was used for (as) a foaming agent in beer - until it became apparent that cobalt in beer caused cardiomyopathy - I pretty much prefer getting all my mineral in Crystalyx Brigade and not worrying about trace minerals - too much of many can be a bad thing - just like too little...ps don't feed your cows imported beer  ;D