“We’ve been really focused on making sure farmers have access to inputs and resources to get the 2020 crop in the ground,” Canola Council of Canada president Jim Everson said during an online town hall Tuesday.

However, both the canola council and the Canadian Canola Growers Association (CCGA) have several areas of concern, he added.

One is the decision by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada to scale back its research operations.

“The canola council is advocating for a timely start to the 2020 yield trials that Agriculture Canada normally does, as long as they can be executed in a manner that is safe for everyone involved from a COVID point of view,” said Everson.

The federal field trials are key to the long-term effort to control blackleg, sclerotinia and other yield-robbing diseases, he said.

Everson said discussions are ongoing with AAFC and farm groups are asking it to review its research work “case by case and project by project to find solutions.”

His organization will continue to offer agronomy services this year, he added.

“We will not change this commitment to support producers, but our programs and our approaches will change.”

Other concerns include the shortage of personal protective equipment for farmers and ensuring they have adequate cash flow, CCGA CEO Rick White said.

“Cash flow is a big worry for farmers, COVID-related or not,” he said.

Like other farm organizations, the two canola groups have been talking to federal officials about changing the Advance Payments Program to help get more cash to the sector.

— Alexis Kienlen is a reporter for Alberta Farmer in Edmonton.

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By the time calves land in the feed yard, they have often been handled and transported several times. How they fight off disease during that extraordinarily stressful period is related to their age and weight. Light calves are more challenged and confused.

The previous history of a calf impacts its future. Vaccinated calves have a better chance of surviving as long as they are not mixed with non-vaccinated calves. Long hauls on the truck are tiring and standing on cement without feed and water triggers shrinkage. Weight can be lost both through excretory or tissue shrink. When it’s the latter, and dehydration and starvation have set in with moisture being pulled from internal tissues and organs, it is more difficult to keep that calf well and eating.

Preventing shrink (and subsequent health problems) requires care when handling and that starts with cattle on pasture. Rough-and-ready roundups are stressful and a loading facility that is in poor order and allows for shadows and noise adds another level of stress. The density on the truck makes a difference as does diet, dust, cold, heat, and the length of travel. At all times, strive to keep calves clean and dry.

If cattle go to auction they may stand for long periods and lose weight from shrinkage while they do. Unable to readjust quickly because of age, temperature, density or diet change, they may ignore water or feed that is provided to them, thus magnifying the problem.

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As the process is repeated again, the calves are challenged and ready to host a variety of pathogens that are shared via air, contact, feed, or fecal matter. Hungry and tired, their immune system compromised and often with elevated temperatures, they arrive in the feed yard where all efforts are made to ensure they go on to feed quickly and not succumb to disease.

All of this history plays a part in the survivability of the calf. It is like getting through customs with the determining factors like who you are, where you came from, and how you got to this point.

As not every calf has the same background, sex, age, or weight, they are sorted into same like pens on arrival. The social order needs to be established and the youngsters will share their germs like it’s a giant outdoor daycare. It is at this point that the accumulation of all the marketing events evolve into symptoms of disease, usually a respiratory problem.

Commingling has been last on the research list for many years as scientists focused on the diseases that were active in the pen. I have always found this curious because responding to active cases leaves little time for addressing the cumulative cause. Addressing commingling when thousands of calves are arriving is tough, but there are strategies from the farm to the feedlot that mitigate the related risks.

Starting at home or at the community pasture is important. Groups of calves are best kept separate and provided water and feed, room to rest, and not left standing for long hours. Loading should be done quietly on a non-slip floor and the ride time should be as short as possible, preferably direct to the feedlot pen. If going through an auction, there will be additional weight loss and there will likely be commingling. Sorting at home — something I term the ‘power of the sort’ — is the best option.

Communicating the background of those cattle — including feed and vaccination, implants, weaning dates (please wean 45 days or more), and age verification — are selling points and that information is helpful at the feed yard. As cattle shed pathogens they have been exposed to at 14 days after arrival, sorting quickly and quietly (preferably from the processing barn), and then sealing the pen is vital. Never introduce cattle into an established pen at any point. Treated and finished cattle also must re-establish the social status in the pen and are at risk.

Several feed yards have ‘opened the gate,’ allowing for low-density grazing or low-density feeding on arrival in a very large space. Others have reduced the overall pen space to have smaller, tighter groups. Both reduce morbidity and mortality.

For those calves that do become ill, sick pens need to be away from the processing and arrivals area to mitigate commingling and the continuous transfer of pathogens. Sorting by a set of specific genetic traits (genomic testing) is also a predictor and helps the sorted cattle to stay together as a unit for the duration of their stay.

Commingling is one of the major stresses that are a precursor to morbidity and mortality on the ranch, farm, and feedlot. As calves are entrusted to your care, please remember to mitigate these risks this fall.

(To view the preparation of one Alberta feed yard prior to calves arriving, go to www.youtube.com and search for ‘kolkfallrun.’)

The post The fall run is tough on calves but we can do better appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The challenge is there are so many factors hinging on the outcome, so deciding which antibiotic to use — or if one is necessary at all — can be a very difficult decision. Also with the ever-present possibility of antibiotic resistance, we as veterinarians need to decide what antimicrobials to stay away from or to only use in clinical cases when a lower-class antibiotic is not efficacious. Hopefully after reading this article, the thought process will become clearer.

One article can’t clarify every possible combination, so you need to work with your veterinarian to decide on a strategy and the choices for at least the common diseases.

Reading the label is always beneficial as diseases for which clearance has been granted are written on the label. This alone gives you a start as to what types of diseases and subsequently what organ systems, the antibiotic will get into.

The majority of antibiotics, especially new ones, requires a prescription from your veterinarian and so you need to know the conditions it is used for, dosage, method of administration, precautions, withdrawal, etc.

The first decision is whether antibiotics are even necessary. If there is no bacterial infection present or expected in the future, antibiotics may be unnecessary (viral infections are one example). On large mature cattle or feedlot animals, withdrawal times definitely need to be considered. If a condition becomes chronic, slaughter may be an option as we don’t want to burden ourselves and the critter with a long slaughter withdrawal.

Other considerations will be the syringeability (especially important in winter), dosage amount, safety, means of administration (subcutaneous, oral, intravenous etc.), and the cost of the product per treatment day. Cost per day is really the way to truly compare treatment costs. The longer-acting products will cost more because they last longer. The upside is less labour and less stress on the cattle. (This may be nullified if other procedures or painkillers must be given on daily basis.)

The main questions we as veterinarians (and you as farmers) face are: What are the conditions, what organ system is primarily involved, and is causative bacteria likely? The answers to these questions determine the most appropriate first-, second-, and third-choice treatment options.

The best choice takes into account farmer preference, as well as past and current research. Veterinarians will even have different ‘favourites’ for specific conditions. There is almost never a single choice.

A few antibiotics are called broad spectrum, which means they work against a wide array of bacteria in different organ systems. The older sulphonimides as well as newer drugs like Nuflor, Resflor, or Excenel are fairly broad in their effect. Other drugs are very specific — for example, treatment of pneumonia. The macrolide antibiotics are a class of drugs which specifically get into the lungs. Drugs such as Zuprevo, Draxxin, Zactran, and Micotil are all macrolides, and are used primarily for bacterial pneumonia and only a few other things. All prescription antibiotics are fairly specific for pneumonia or only a few other conditions.

Veterinarians may also prescribe them for very specific things, such as seminal vesiculitis in young bulls. There will never be a label claim against these oddball infections. A veterinarian’s experience is invaluable in writing an extra-label prescription. If we do see resistance against one drug in an antibiotic class it is usually resistant to the other drugs in that class.

There are two big classes of bacteria — gram positive and gram negative. Clostridial infections such as blackleg or anthrax are caused by gram-positive organisms. We were always told at veterinary school: P for positive and P for penicillin. This older antibiotic is still quite effective against certain conditions and most veterinarians still use it. Diseases such as blackleg produce toxins and the animal succumbs quickly, so prevention in the form of vaccination is the only effective way to prevent this disease.

To be effective, the right drug must be administered at the right time and right dosage. Weight must be estimated correctly. These antibiotics have been formulated to be effective at the appropriate dosage. Twice as much as necessary will not be more effective and will only cost you more and result in an increased drug withdrawal time. The safety rule of thumb is that if you double the dosage, you double the slaughter withdrawal. Always keep that in mind.

I would be remiss here if I didn’t mention supplemental drugs, such as painkillers, anti-inflammatories, and appetite stimulants. For specific disease, they are often given in conjunction with antibiotics to quicken or improve the response. Again your veterinarian can advise what works best.

Selecting the appropriate medication for a specific disease takes some thought. The biggest step saver is recording what products you use (record either the active ingredient or trade name) and list the diseases it is effective against as well as the dosage. Have a first and second choice and your own specific farm SOP set up by the veterinarian. This will go a long ways to making sure the appropriate product is given especially by new workers.

As well, put up drug dosage charts (available for most products) by the chute, and list withdrawal times. Have epinephrine handy (in case you get a drug reaction) and have the appropriate syringes and needles. Remember a lot of products you use require a prescription and only use products approved for cattle unless you have a written prescription from your veterinarian. Refrigerate the appropriate products and protect others from freezing. Doing all these things should maximize effectiveness of the products.

The future will see more and more vaccines and immune stimulants used, but good management is required to minimize disease and antibiotic usage.

The bottom line is we will always need them to a certain degree, so selecting the right one and using it appropriately will yield the best results.

The post The criteria for selecting the right antibiotic appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

This year’s focus is on infectious disease diagnosis and control, including overviews of diarrhea, respiratory disease, and other diseases; biosecurity; vaccination; and preconditioning. There will also be workshops on managing pre-weaning diseases, infectious lameness in the feedlot, and administering veterinary pharmaceuticals.

Program details are available at vet.ucalgary.ca/beef, by emailing beef@ucalgary.ca or calling 403-210-6420.

The post Beef conference to focus on infectious diseases appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The study was conducted with cattle from two commercial feedlots to evaluate to see if the vaccine would reduce the number of E. coli 0157 shed in cattle feces. If the cattle carried E. coli 0157 that had the stx2 toxin gene (which is linked to increased risk of human disease), the vaccine didn’t reduce the level of E. coli 0157 detected on hides or in feces of the animals at any time.

When the stx2 gene was absent, vaccination reduced the number of E. coli 0157 detected in feces and on hides of animals, but only during the feeding period. The reduction was not carried through to shipment and slaughter.

The study also looked at the effectiveness of a direct-fed microbial, but found it also had minimal impact.

“Neither method reduced E. coli 0157 carrying the stx2 gene, thereby putting into question the projected benefits of vaccination on human health,” the Alberta Livestock and Meat Agency, which provided funding for the study, stated in a release.

“With these results, it makes sense for all partners within the beef industry to continue looking for different mitigation strategies,” said Susan Novak, the agency’s executive director of strategic initiatives.

The post E. coli vaccine not effective in feedlot cattle appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“In integrated pest management, pest suppression is truly the goal,” Tracey Hueppelsheuser said at a workshop in late July.

“The end goal is to limit pest outbreaks and impacts — not completely remove them, but limit them. You’re expecting that if you can keep them down to a dull roar, then you’ve had success.”

In any ecosystem, good and bad bugs alike play an important role, she said.

“Insects do a lot of good for us. It’s not all bad,” said Hueppelsheuser.

“You’ve got to know the good bugs from the bad bugs — know who’s out there to help you and who’s causing you trouble. If you kill all the good guys, you’ll inherit their job.”

But like any organism, insects need a suitable environment to thrive, one that often conflicts with the goals of growers.

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“The goal in our agriculture systems is to optimize and maximize the ecosystem resource to produce the greatest amount of harvestable product,” she said.

“And with any organism that takes this yield potential away and is competing with us, we consider it undesirable.”

Complex ecosystems tend to be more balanced, and manage pests so “no organism gets out of control or takes more than it should,” she said.

Simpler systems, such as those seen in annual agriculture crops, are less balanced, creating the perfect environment for insect pests and diseases.

“There’s an abundance of certain resources, and that results in pest problems.”

Integrated pest management encourages a preventive approach to pest control, with the focus on suppression rather than elimination, she added.

Action plan

Reducing numbers of harmful bugs starts with planning, said Hueppelsheuser.

“Crop rotation, planting tolerant or resistant varieties, preparing the ground in a certain way — those sorts of things will influence and prevent pest infestations,” she said.

Monitoring is also important for “preventing pest surprises.”

“Monitoring is all about regular checks, and it’s all about numbers,” she said, adding the number of pests and beneficial insects, crop development, and weather patterns all influence pest risk in the field.

Once a problem is identified, deciding when and how to control the outbreak is based on a “combination of factors.” The value of the crop, pest risk, expected damage, availability of control measures, costs, and risks associated with control will all factor in to which, if any, control measures are employed.

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“If you have a very expensive product or a very low crop value, you may never get enough pests to justify control,” she said.

Depending on the crop and the pest, producers can use behavioural, biological, chemical, cultural, and mechanical control methods.

“There’s reams and reams of management options depending on what you’re trying to control.”

But the real key to any integrated pest management program is flexibility, she said.

“The best plans will need to be adjusted based on changes in pest population, weather, and harvest strategies.”

The post A better way to beat your bug troubles appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“One of the key things for all of us as we move into the summer will be what happens in the U.S. this fall,” the owner of Prairie Swine Health Services said during a “telephone town hall” on June 26.

“As we move into corn and bean harvest in the U.S. Midwest and people are focused back on their field and maybe not as focused on their pig barns, will we see the virus spread more rapidly again? Will we see an increase in the number of positives?”

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The United States Department of Agriculture has made porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) a reportable virus, but experts do not know if all cases south of the border are being reported. However, the number of new cases being reported has declined to about 100 per week — a sharp drop from the weekly high of about 300 reported in January and February. About 20 per cent of them are actually swine delta coronavirus (SCDV) — a cousin of PEDv. The disease is rampant in the U.S. and about 75 per cent of the entire sow inventory in the country has been infected with PEDv.

In Canada, only about 70 herds have been infected, mostly in Ontario.

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“Since the initial outbreak (23 weeks ago), we’ve seen a significant decline in the number of new cases,” said Brockhoff. “We went for about a month without a new case in Canada, and we’ve just had a few sites in Ontario affected again recently, but I think we’re all very happy to see the level of decline in new cases.

“There’s a great national effort underway… we will continue to focus our efforts on biosecurity education and biosecurity, so we can all continue to keep the virus out of Canada.”

Alberta continues to monitor all major pig processors and assembly yards for the virus, and has been conducting polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests on a number of sites throughout the province, including truck washes, assembly yards and processors.

Even though there are cases in Ontario, Canada has the potential to eradicate the virus completely, Brockhoff said. That would give the country’s pork industry a huge advantage, he added.

“That’s great for our industry. We’re all excited for pork pricing and where we’re at right now with the industry,” he said.

The country is stepping up surveillance for swine delta coronavirus, which causes vomiting and diarrhea in pigs and is usually fatal for nursing pigs. So far, Alberta remains negative for this virus (which was made a reportable disease in June) as well as PEDv. Any hog producer who thinks either virus or another form of transmissible gastroenteritis is in their herd needs to report it to their veterinarian. Any suspect cases will be screened for all three viruses. Farms infected with SCDV will not have to stop movement or be quarantined, but producers will receive support from their local veterinarian and the Alberta government.

Expect PEDv to ramp up again in cold weather, said Doug MacDougald, a veterinarian with South West Ontario Veterinary Services who was also on the telephone town hall. With livestock trucks constantly arriving from the U.S., Canadian producers have to remain on high alert, he said.

The post Officials hopeful in PEDv battle appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Cathy K. (her last name withheld by request) was exposed to hantavirus around Halloween of 2002, when she was 44 years old. She, her husband, and their five-year-old son were living on an acreage just seven kilometres east of Calgary. One day, her husband discovered a mouse nest while rearranging the woodpile just outside the patio doors, which prompted her to say, “Oh great, now we’re all going to get hantavirus and die.”

Some of the wood was later brought into their home, and when Cathy swept the area next to where it was stacked, she believes she inhaled dry mouse feces and urine which became airborne.

On a Friday three weeks later, she began to feel some flu symptoms, and called in sick to work. On Saturday, she still felt ill, but felt well enough to attend a family gathering the following day. She missed work again on Monday, recovered enough to return to work on Tuesday, but then took a turn for the worse and stayed home for the rest of the week.

“On Saturday morning, I got up and I said my destination was the doctor, or the hospital,” she said. “We just have to go. I tried to shower and I was out of breath. I was really weak.”

Cathy said it never occurred to her to go to the doctor earlier because she assumed it was just the flu. In retrospect, she said she believes her falling blood oxygen levels were impairing her judgment and ability to evaluate how sick she truly was. She wasn’t coughing, and didn’t notice any shortness of breath until that Saturday, but the ongoing weakness was a symptom of hantavirus pulmonary syndrome (HPS).

Plummeting blood pressure

When the virus invades the body, the immune system responds by attacking certain cells that harbour it. The internal structure of the cells is damaged and they leak fluid. This causes the lungs to slowly fill with fluid, restricting oxygen intake, and can also cause a dangerous drop in blood pressure. In other words, Cathy was slowly drowning in her own fluids.

Unaware of how serious her condition was, Cathy opted for a medical clinic instead of a hospital.

“When I got to the clinic, I laid down on the floor,” she said. “I’m a teacher, I’m a professional — I don’t go into someone’s office and lay on their floor in front of their reception desk.”

The alarmed receptionist took her to the doctor right away.

“I think he thought I was faking it. He tried to take my blood pressure and I had no reading. It was not measurable,” she said.

The doctor told Cathy to go home and take some Tylenol.

“And then I said I’d been throwing up water, and it saved my life. He said to go immediately to the ER.”

Cathy’s husband rushed her to Rockyview Hospital. Too weak to sit up, she laid down in the back of the van. By the time she arrived, she couldn’t walk.

She was admitted and treated with oxygen, which initially helped. But even with the oxygen therapy, her blood gas levels continued to worsen and she was moved to the ICU in the middle of the night.

“I looked up and there must have been seven people around me — respiratory techs, nurses and doctors — and then I heard them say that if I thrashed, they’d hold me down.”

She realized the medical team was about to intubate her (inserting a tube to provide rapid respiratory assistance). That was her last memory before entering a three-day drug-induced coma.

In total, Cathy spent 13 days in the hospital. Had she not received medical attention when she did, she would have been dead within hours. She credits her survival to an exceptional medical team and plenty of prayer.

A small woman to begin with, she was only 90 pounds after leaving hospital. But unlike many others who experience scarring in their lungs, she was lucky and doesn’t suffer from the same debilitating symptoms other survivors must cope with.

The experience was life changing, and humbling. Cathy’s faith is stronger now, and she said she feels as though she was spared.

“I feel it was a miracle.”

Cathy and her family have since moved back to the city, and she continues to work as a music teacher. She urges people not to gamble with hantavirus.

“You must take this seriously… Farmers are healthy, strapping men, but this can knock them down and kill them. It can take their lives.”

The post Calgary woman contracts hantavirus, lives to tell tale appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.