Using video conferencing technology, researchers with the University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine found that connecting specialized pathologists with in-the-field large animal veterinarians in real time delivered a definitive diagnosis for dead cattle 98 per cent of the time.

Unassisted necropsies or post-mortems in the field only reached a definitive diagnosis 67 per cent of the time, so the video conferencing option is significantly more likely to result in a diagnosis, said lead researcher Jennifer Davies.

“Ultimately, when we reach a diagnosis in these cases, that equates to better use of producer money and veterinary resources in these investigations,” she said.

“That allows the vets to have a definitive diagnosis and evidence to make decisions on herd treatments and management. I think it shows the value of veterinary lab diagnostics as well to the producers.”

The Beef Cattle Research Council-sponsored project focused on beef cattle but it could be adapted to all types of production animals, Davies said.

“I think we have a need and desire for the service. I think it would support multiple different commodities throughout the province. And right now, our lab is exploring options to move this from the research arena into a service that we can offer to veterinarians in Alberta.”

While Davies was optimistic about telepathology’s potential prior to the project, she was stunned by how effective it was.

“While I had suspected our diagnostic rate would improve through the use of this technology, I was a bit surprised just how much improvement we saw.”

Telepathology is fundamentally a response to geographical challenges. There’s a high ratio of cattle producers to veterinarian pathologists in Canada. The latter are rarely located in rural communities where they can readily perform on-site post-mortems.

Although veterinarians are trained to do routine post-mortems, pathologists provide specialization and expertise in the causes of disease and death. Post-mortem investigations can suffer without their input, said Davies.

“If we don’t understand why animals are sick and dying in Alberta, we don’t know what diseases we have here and what we don’t have here. And that leaves us open to missing new and emerging diseases.”

Another challenge is that it is frequently impractical and expensive to send whole bodies, particularly large livestock like cattle, to a lab. Telepathology offers pathologists the chance to see a body on-site while working with a vet to collect the most relevant samples.

The project had three objectives. The first was to determine if real-time pathologist assisted necropsies (RT-PAN) improved the chances of finding the cause of death compared to unassisted field post-mortems.

The second was to see whether pathologist assistance reduced the time and money involved in reaching a diagnosis.

Finally, researchers wanted to see if real-time post-mortems are useful and viable service options that could be offered to food animal vet practitioners by the diagnostic services unit (DSU) at UCVM.

The researchers used video calling to enable a pathologist at the DSU to help interpret pathology, guide collection of samples and see the site and animal as the post-mortem occurred.

The team worked with five vet clinics to collect 58 necropsies. Thirty-two were unassisted field post-mortems while the other 26 were RT-PAN. Locations were concentrated in southern Alberta mainly because the researchers targeted vet practices already using the DSU’s services, said Davies.

The challenges of using RT-PAN are largely technical. It’s highly dependent on strong communication services. This may limit use in remote areas with substandard internet access.

Even in areas with well-developed telecommunications, issues such as adverse weather conditions, poor video and audio as well as equipment challenges can create obstacles.

Davies said poor phone and internet connections are major limiting factors in some regions and there are no easy solutions. However, the team had backups in case of front-line equipment failure.

“There were certainly instances where we couldn’t necessarily establish video feed for conferencing, but perhaps cell service was still present in that area and then we could rely on phone conversations as well and that still had value.

“In the absence of having telecommunications in the area, then I think we have to go back to some of our more standard or tried-and-true methods of working with veterinarians out in the field. And that can be for them to take static images and email us digital photos of what they were seeing that helps to augment the case and our understanding.”

Another barrier is time, a limited resource for most large animal vets. However, a post-project survey of participants found they considered RT-PAN education a valuable use of time.

Respondents were also enthusiastic about the potential to build relationships between veterinarians and pathologists as well as opportunities for continuing education. The BCRC summary described both possibilities as “extremely valuable.”

Davies was surprised by telepathology’s potential for human connection.

“Both the veterinarians and pathologists at the lab reiterated on several occasions in the survey that this was a powerful tool for relationship building. And I would echo that I learned a lot from the veterinarians I worked with. I hope they learned a little bit from me as well,” she said.

“It just really showed me that when we work together in partnership as field veterinarians and pathologists, rather than working in silos, we can accomplish greater things.”

The post Remote post-mortems boost diagnoses in cattle appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Born in New York in 1945, Black grew up in southern New Mexico and graduated from Colorado State University in 1969. He later relocated from Colorado to Benson, Arizona, about 60 km southeast of Tucson.

During the 1980s Black began publishing his poems and stories about ranching life. “My audience is my inspiration,” he said on his website. “Every cowboy, rancher, vet, farmer, feed salesman, ag teacher, cowman and rodeo hand has a story to tell, and they tell it to me. I Baxterize it and tell it back to ’em! It doesn’t seem fair, does it?”

Black self-syndicated his column, ‘On the Edge of Common Sense,’ which included his poems, stories and essays, to multiple newspapers in both the U.S. and Canada and was a regular feature in the Cattleman’s Corner section of Grainews.

He performed his works regularly at farm shows and conventions, was a featured guest on U.S. National Public Radio’s (NPR) Morning Edition show and appeared on NBC TV’s The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson.

Black also published several books, CDs and DVDs of his work and briefly co-authored a comic strip, Ag Man, a campy series about a super-hero protecting farms and ranches, which also appeared in Grainews.

The cause of Black’s death wasn’t available Monday but an Arizona news outlet quoted Black’s wife Cindy Lou as saying earlier this year that he had been ill with leukaemia and dementia. No memorial service for Black has yet been publicly announced. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

The post U.S. cowboy poet and veterinarian Baxter Black, 77 appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Flush with major new provincial funding, officials at the province’s vet school say they have a plan to address the long-standing problem.

It will start with a slight increase in veterinary students this fall and be followed by a much bigger increase in the next two years along with changes aimed at attracting more young vets and foreign-trained professionals to rural areas.

“We’ll add five more students starting this September, and adding more next year, and the remainder when the new facilities are built in 2024 — we are fast-tracking that,” said University of Calgary president Ed McCauley.

“We’ll be creating a pipeline where our skill and knowledge can grow. Nowhere will this be felt more than in rural Alberta. Soon there will be more students, and soon after that, there will be more vets.

“That is what our agricultural industry needs, and what our province needs.”

Earlier this year, the province pledged $58.5 million for a physical expansion of the university’s vet school and followed that up this month with another $8.4 million over three years to boost enrolment. By 2025, the school will have ‘seats’ for 100 students (double the current 50) — although it will be another four years before they graduate.

The shortage of rural vets has been growing and groups such as the Alberta Veterinary Medical Association have been urging government to act on the problem (which is not just a shortage of vets but also other veterinary professionals).

“There have been some rough days for our profession over the last few years,” said Dr. Natasha Kutryk, the association’s vice-president and a large-animal veterinarian.

“Labour shortages combined with COVID and the rising demand for services have placed tremendous stress on the veterinary profession.”

The vet shortage is a global problem and the boost in provincial funding here will be noticed across the country, she said.

“We have not seen this level of investment in the Alberta veterinary community before,” said Kutryk. “The Canadian veterinary community will take notice of Alberta’s leadership.”

That view was echoed by the dean of the University of Calgary faculty of veterinary medicine.

“I have to congratulate Alberta for taking the initiative here — the rest of Canada is still talking about the problem,” said Dr. Renate Weller.

But addressing the vet shortage will take time, she added.

“We need some short- and medium-term solutions. The whole team at the U of C, we’re running as fast as we can, but we need a few years to produce those new vets for Alberta.”

Part of the solution is to “import some talent,” said Weller, a native of Germany who has worked in the U.S. and U.K. and consulted globally.

“At the U of C, we are ready to help onboard those people,” she said. “We already have plans for micro-credentials so we can assure that those people who come in can fit the market.

Another issue is that most grads from vet schools head towards small-animal practices, usually in urban centres. Only 20 to 30 per cent of U of Calgary grads have gone into a rural practice of any sort.

But Weller said her school plans to address that issue by creating rural and urban “streams.”

“The rural stream will be on large animals,” she said. “However, these people are the true James Herriots (the famous British vet and popular author) — they also need to be able to spay cats or neuter dogs. They need to be rural practitioners who can service all the animals related in those vicinities.”

But to do that, the vet school needs to change, said Weller.

“We have already started changing admission criteria, and we are looking at traits besides academic,” she said.

The school also needs to play a role in supporting grads who go into rural practice, she added.

“I come from a rural area, I’ve worked in a rural area and it’s stressful to be on your own, especially in the cold and dark,” said Weller. “What we are especially going to do and what we are working on is a support network — a tele-support network where we can provide the clinical and personal mentorship that people need.”

Graduating more people willing to go into rural practice won’t work if they don’t stay, she said.

“The shortage is a leaky bucket phenomenon,” she said. “We have true expansion of the sector, but we also have attrition, attrition due to retirement and stress… We also need to keep those professionals in the profession longer, and let them have a fulfilled work life.”

Still, doubling the capacity of the vet school is a major step forward, Kutryk said at a press conference to announce the increased funding for enrolment.

“It has been a dire forecast until today — a day that represents an opportunity, a commitment of educational excellence and dedication to developing a profession that will contribute significantly to the growth and innovation in Alberta’s economy,” she said. “Today is a very good day for the veterinary profession, for Alberta animal owners and for all Alberta children dreaming of one day being a veterinarian.”

The post More money helps, but fixing rural vet shortage a daunting task appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

“A lot of people might think, great, I got greater than 90 per cent (pregnancy rate), that might mean success,” said veterinarian Dr. Blake Balog, who owns Bow Valley Livestock Health in Brooks.

“To me, it doesn’t mean a whole heck of a lot if I haven’t defined how long that breeding season is or the calving distribution.”

For Balog, who presented as part of a recent Beef Cattle Research Council webinar, the metrics that define reproductive stress are based on average breeding season and calving distribution targets. For cows, the breeding season should be around 60 days, or roughly three cycles, whereas for heifers, that number drops to 45 days.

“With that, if we’ve got normally fertile bulls and cows and heifers, we should see a 95 per cent preg check on a 60-day exposure and 85 per cent on a 45-day exposure,” said Balog, adding that some producers tighten up that timeline even further.

“We have a lot of clients around here doing anywhere down to 20 or 30 days, just pushing that reproductive momentum a little bit harder and selecting for the most fertile heifers.”

Calving distribution also plays an important role in determining reproductive success. Typically, 60 to 70 per cent of calving should be completed in the first cycle, as older calves generally weigh more when it comes time to sell.

“If we look at the metrics in terms of profitability, the herd that has the better calving distribution had about a $75-per-head advantage just from having a better calving distribution,” he said of one case study.

“So there are dollars and cents to having this better reproductive momentum.”

It’s also important to know what the average postpartum interval is, he added.

For a cow, that interval should be between 50 to 80 days, while for a heifer, it’s about 80 to 100 days.

“If we’ve done something wrong on those heifers — like dropped our body condition score — that’s going to delay the time frame that they’re going to get back cycling again,” he said.

“It also makes you think maybe we should be doing something with those heifers to get them to calve a little earlier than the cows we know have a little more time to catch back up.”

To that end, producers should be “paying a lot of attention to their heifers,” making sure that their body condition score is around 2.5 or 3.0 and that they’re on an “inclining plane of nutrition.”

“That’s where our momentum starts,” he said. “That means developing our heifers to an adequate weight — that usually means in the range of 55 to 60 per cent (of mature weight) and making sure they’re calving out at a reasonable weight as well.

“It’s really important for those critters you’re developing and for the cow herd you’re maintaining too.”

Breeding heifers early will also put some selection pressure on fertility, he added.

“It irks me when guys get a higher open rate and then the next year they figure they just want to put the bull out for longer. That’s really not the solution at all,” Balog said.

“The solution is putting better selection pressure on fertility in that herd and paying attention to nutrition.”

But every herd will have physiological, as well as regional, limitations, so producers will need to work closely with their veterinarians to optimize the reproductive success in their own herds.

“Every person’s situation is unique,” said Balog.

“We try to achieve the best situation that biology dictates is possible, but everyone’s herd-level dynamics will change things quite a bit.”

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University of Calgary animal health professor Dr. Karin Orsel has won a cattle welfare award for “her transformational contributions to the advancement of care in the bovine species.”

“Dr. Orsel is a world leader in bovine health, and mentor to veterinarians, researchers and producers across Alberta and beyond,” said Jocelyn Dubuc, president of the Canadian Association of Bovine Veterinarians, which presents the Metacam Bovine Welfare Award annually.

Orsel is a professor in the department of production animal health at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Her work focuses on infectious diseases in cattle, with an emphasis on lameness.

The post U of Calgary professor wins cattle welfare award appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

But strategies are starting to be developed for long-term solutions to this dilemma.

During a recent large-animal veterinary conference, I talked to many young veterinarians who graduated five or so years ago. It was not surprising that younger registrants at the conference were about 75 to 80 per cent women, as this reflects the percentage of women who are accepted into veterinary schools (in both small-animal and large-animal fields of study).

But it was surprising to learn how many of our homegrown talent went to veterinary schools in other parts of the world to further their education. To me it is great to see the education they are getting abroad and also that they are coming back home to Canada to practise. But it is a very costly venture to attend a foreign veterinary school, and there is a big push to increase the number of places in veterinary schools in Canada to keep up with the demand. A form of streaming of students may be looked at and the veterinary school at Saint-Hyacinthe in Quebec is making this a reality with seats designated for large-animal practitioners.

The Alberta government is in the midst of changing its funding for spots (called ‘seats’) in veterinary colleges. That change will see it fund 20 more seats at University of Calgary Veterinary Medicine (for a total of 50) while phasing out funding for 20 seats at the Western College of Veterinary Medicine in Saskatoon. But that means those 20 seats in Saskatoon will be open to others. This normally might be open to foreign graduates (usually for a higher fee), as the seats would not be subsidized by the respective provincial financial coffers. But the other provinces can fund additional seats. We have lots of local talent who want to get into veterinary college but there are only so many seats. (There are about six applicants for every spot available.)

One might wonder why there is an increased need for more large-animal vets when the actual numbers of livestock, especially cattle, have gone down since the BSE crisis.

But veterinarians are needed more than ever because there are more preventive programs, regulatory and record-keeping requirements, and food safety and animal welfare protocols as well as the need to increase productivity. As well, more emphasis is being placed on the one-health model and the crossover between human and veterinary health (ecosystem and public health). The need for individual animal medicine has also increased as the value of livestock increased and our ability to diagnose, treat and rehabilitate increased. For example, owners of larger herds generally do more of the preventive management procedures and look for ways to improve reproductive levels. Animal welfare both in handling and treatments have increased veterinary involvement much more than in the past. Finally, other species such as bison, elk, or traditional ones such as sheep and goats are increasing in numbers. All this leads to increased demand for large-animal veterinarians.

So what can you do as producers, producer groups, community pasture groups, cattle associations, feed mills or veterinary clinics?

We probably need to change our long-term focus. On an individual basis, using your local veterinary clinic for regular work and emergency work and having a very good working relationship encourages expansion and the need for more veterinarians. As a result, clinics expand and can work co-operatively together.

We also need to push for more seats in veterinary schools and for a streamed-type program on some of the seats so that more students with an interest in large animals can get in. These may be students from the country but I have seen several young veterinarians who have grown up in a city and love to work with large animals. This needs to be encouraged.

Mentoring of young veterinarians is key to retention at clinics. If we can teach, supervise, and be available on the phone to our younger inexperienced large-animal vets, they can avoid some of those tough situations or outcomes. And that goes a long ways to retaining veterinarians.

The model of the mixed-animal practices will change with larger practices covering larger areas with even better haul-in facilities. The scope of practice with specialized large-animal technicians taking on a bigger role regarding BSE testing, performing autopsies or when assisting veterinarians with procedures such as semen testing bulls are definitely sped up. This all helps with a veterinarian’s output in a day. There may be programs started (as they have done in human medicine) that provide for grants for those committing to practise in a rural setting.

We all know country living and working in the outdoors with producers can be a fulfilling career. We all just need to get veterinarians into the clinics, and then mentor and support them properly, have a shared on-call program, utilize good haul-in facilities where possible, and make them part of the community.

Let’s all work to make this happen and show the government the need for having more seats in vet schools. Encourage any young keen students you know — especially those with an interest in the agricultural sector — to consider large-animal medicine as a career choice.

They won’t be disappointed. I know I wasn’t.

The post What we can do to address the shortage of large-animal vets appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

I have heard several veterinarians and animal welfare scientists discuss if branding in its original form is even needed today. Lots has changed from the days of the wide-open range where cattle were mixed and the brand was the only proof of ownership.

We have better retention identification tags, most herds aren’t mixed, cattle very seldom escape, and we can even do DNA testing if we have to. If we do brand, there are ways to minimize the pain (or make the characters smaller or use less of them).

I wrote about this topic over 15 years ago — and got lots of flack and letters to the editor. I will see if this article further stirs up discussion on a topic that has been skirted around.

There is a cost of branding in terms of labour along with stress on the calf and pain it causes. It may be the greatest single processing cost to the industry, and one that has almost no upside. Before the advent of ear tagging and when vast ranges were shared, it was necessary for herd identification. Now better retention ear tags doubled up with CCIA tags (and in feedlots sometimes tripled up with dangle pen tags), individual identification is rarely in question. In the event of legal disputes over ownership, there have been rare cases that have been solved with DNA samples of hair. But brands can be altered, new brands applied, and disappear when rustled cattle are butchered and skinned.

We need to strongly press the issue of financial organizations in the west asking for brands. Feeder associations should lead on this issue. They have required the split bar which albeit identifies cattle as feeder association cattle. It becomes a big brand and if cattle are refinanced through other members of the family, requires yet again another brand. (No wonder hides soon have no value as they are pockmarked with brands. We see this with trader cows where multiple brands are evident.)

Our own CFIA needs to take the moral high ground and push to eliminate the need for branding with the C (upside down V) N going into the U.S. This imposes unnecessary costs and pain for the cattle even though we have CCIA tags and the necessary paperwork and disease status to enter. The same requirement is not there for cattle entering Canada from the U.S. which was odd right from the beginning.

Even if ranchers started by eliminating branding to only their replacement heifers, there is still the need to do all the other processing procedures in the spring including castrating. Most producers have started giving NSAIDs (non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs) such as meloxicam or banamine to all the calves at spring processing. Castrating is deemed to cause the biggest amount of pain but the heifers were also branded so treating with painkillers at branding time is becoming routine. Many put onẲ a soothing product (such as aloe vera or other sprays) to promote healing. Most see the need to give something for pain when cattle are branded or to promote healing.

The national Beef Code of Practice recognizes this: “When branding is required for export, by policy, or as permanent proof of ownership, it must be performed with the proper equipment, restraint and by personnel with training or sufficient combination of knowledge and experience to minimize pain to the animal.”

The code also says producers should minimize size of brands, should not rebrand, and states face branding is not legal. (This is a good time to mention that identification methods such as ear splitting; creating the wattles on the dewlap or cheek; cutting the end of the ears off; or ear notching — although not talked about — probably need to be identified as not appropriate anymore.)

It all comes down to the social licence. And quite frankly, I don’t see the need anymore. (We can’t avoid the occasional ear ripping occurring from ear tagging, but the breakaway ear taggers really help prevent that.)

I can only hope that those who brand at least give NSAIDs (either at the time or preferably before). Technically veterinarians would need to prescribe them for those procedures, and I don’t know many who would agree with those processes.

Today, only about 10 per cent of cattle are branded — and it occurs almost exclusively in the three most western provinces. I once had a very knowledgeable producer from Ontario say he thought it must be illegal not to brand cattle in the west. I said no, it just seems this way.

Community pastures in Alberta even require a lot number or patron number on a tag, so again, there is very little need to brand in my opinion. Some forward-thinking grazing boards maybe need to put this issue on the agenda. I know many producers who only brand the calves going to the grazing reserves these days. Branding is barely done anymore in the northern half of Alberta, so we all need to try and convince policy-makers for financial institutions, such as banks or feeder associations and grazing reserves to seriously look at these long-standing requirements.

The rest is up to you, the producers. Decrease usage wherever possible and if absolutely necessary, use NSAIDs or other pain control treatments as prescribed by your veterinarian.

We need to keep reducing the necessity to brand wherever possible as it is part of that social licence for raising cattle.

The post Is there really any need to brand cattle anymore? appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Those are just four potential health threats to cattle when conditions are extremely dry.

“The biggest problem we have on the Prairies is water that is high in sulphates,” said Dr. John Campbell, professor in the department large animal clinical sciences at the University of Saskatchewan.

Sulphates can affect cattle in a number of ways. In low levels, they can tie up copper and affect a cow’s reproductivity. At higher levels, they can cause a polio-like condition called polioencephalomalacia.

“Over the summer, sulphate levels can change dramatically in things like dugouts,” said Campbell. “As water evaporates throughout the heat of summer, sulphate levels can become more concentrated in the dugout.”

Sulphates were higher than normal this spring, because of the lack of snowfall. Even dugout water that is OK at the beginning of summer may develop a higher concentration of sulphates as water evaporates.

Signs of polio resemble those of a severe depression, said Campbell. Cattle will have trouble walking, fall down and can appear blind. They can have seizures and will sometimes die very suddenly. (In 2017, high sulphate levels were a factor in the death of 200 cattle at a Saskatchewan pasture.)

During dry periods, cattle are also at greater risk from plants, as they will start grazing toxic plants they won’t normally eat. Another danger is fog fever, which occurs when cattle are moved from an overgrazed pasture to a lush one. The cattle’s rumens have adjusted to the dry pasture, and after a sudden switch to richer fare, the animals can develop a type of toxic bacteria in the rumen, which affects the cells that line the lungs. Symptoms include difficulty breathing, coughing, frothing at the mouth, anxiety, collapse and death.

Fog fever is more common in the fall, and there is no treatment. Cattle can recover from mild cases, but severe ones can be fatal.

Blue-green algae also becomes more common in dugouts in dry years. The toxic cyanobacteria lives in stagnant water, and hot conditions can lead to algae blooms.

Nitrates can also be higher in stressed plants, and plants are likely to have more toxins, said Campbell.

As well, some feeds, such as dried distillers grains, have high sulphate content.

“They don’t have enough sulphate on their own to cause major issues, but if you had feedlot cattle on distillers grains and then you had a well fairly high in sulphates, you could tip them over the edge and cause polio-like conditions in cattle,” he said.

Some deep wells can also have high sulphate levels. Producers may have to look for another water source if sulphate levels are too high. There is no known way to remove sulphates from water.

“Producers do need to be aware of the water quality issues,” said Campbell. “There are other things that could affect water quality other than sulphates, but sulphates are the most dramatic and the thing we worry about most.”

Producers should talk to their vets about their water tests because understanding sulphate levels can be confusing, said Dr. Cody Creelman, a veterinarian with Veterinary Agri-Health Services in Airdrie.

“It’s good to have a veterinarian in the loop to wade through what the actual number is,” he said.

Veterinarians in Alberta will send samples to private labs, interpret the results and help producers make adjustments to ensure that their cattle are not at risk.

Another issue in dry years can occur when producers turn to alternative feeds. Sometimes they feed things that are not good for cattle, such as green flax.

When cows aren’t getting enough vitamin A because of lower quality, there can be a spillover effect.

“Cows will be low in vitamin A, and calves get all their vitamin A from the colostrum of a cow,” said Campbell. “If producers don’t supplement their vitamin A this winter, and the cows are grazing in dry conditions, we should see a vitamin A deficiency in calves next spring because the cow will not have much vitamin A to give them.”

Vitamin A is needed for normal immune function and growth.

After several dry years, finding quality hay and forage has become very challenging for many producers.

“Farmers are going to have to make tough decisions about culling cows and getting feed supplies,” said Campbell. “If you haven’t kept the body condition score up this year, it may be next year that we see the wreck if people can’t keep body condition score up on cows this year and through the winter.”

The post Less rain equals more danger for cattle on your ranch appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

The association said the Office of the Chief Provincial Veterinarian received notification of the positive rabies test on Nov. 13.

“This nine-year-old, indoor-outdoor cat was born and lived on a farm near Longview,” the ABVMA said in its e-newsletter. “The cat displayed extreme aggression and bit the owner and the owner’s son. This prompted them to seek medical attention, and rabies post-exposure prophylaxis commenced immediately.”

The rabies virus infects the brain and nervous system of mammals and, if not treated in time, is almost always fatal.

Four other cats and two dogs on the farm have been given post-exposure rabies vaccinations and placed under a three-month quarantine. Further testing identified the type of rabies as the bat variant of the virus.

“Cats hunting bats is not an abnormal scenario and with the small percentage of bats that are positive for rabies in Alberta, having an unvaccinated cat positive for rabies can occur,” said the ABVMA.

The last two such cases in cats occurred in 2010 and 2006. There was also a case in 2013 when a puppy brought to Calgary from Nunavut tested positive for the arctic fox variant.

“So far in 2018 we have also had nine bats test positive for rabies through scenarios in which they interacted with pet dogs, pet cats, or directly with humans,” the ABVMA said. “These positive bats have been from all over Alberta, which is not surprising given that bats are present in rural and urban areas and move freely throughout the province.”

Despite that low rate, “it is important to remember that only through vaccination of our pets can we protect their health and in turn, human health,” the veterinary association said.

The post Rabies case in farm cat prompts vaccination warning appeared first on Alberta Farmer Express.

Dr. Robert (Bob) Jones has been named Veterinarian of the Year while Dr. Peter Martin will receive the Meritorious Service award when the association holds its awards banquet in February.

The Young Veterinarian of the Year award will go to Dr. Graeme Boender, the Communications award will go to Dr. Cody Creelman, and Cindee Burns will receive the Registered Veterinary Technologist of the Year award. Dr. Kevin Breker will receive the Outstanding Mentor award.

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