Over the next four weeks, we will be dealing with everything related to pneumonia. Each of the articles will be supported by videos that show how we can get a handle on respiratory disease in our suckler herds. Last year close to 50% of all dead weanlings submitted to regional veterinary laboratories were diagnosed with pneumonia as the cause of death. It is the number one animal health problem the Irish beef farmer faces. So follow this series to see where you can apply this knowledge to your farm.
Pneumonia is the inflammation of airways and soft lung tissue. It can be severe or mild but this damage to this soft tissue which transports oxygen from air into the bloodstream is detrimental to this animal’s performance and can be fatal.
The lungs are the place where the fuel of life is poured into the engine. This fuel is oxygen, which is needed for maintenance and growth. On our farms, growing weanlings means profit and dead animals can be devastating.
The lungs of cattle are smaller and arguably, have to then work harder to keep up. When inflammation and infection occur in the lungs it can do lasting damage. This means the healthy tissues and tiny air saccules that soak up this oxygen can be permanently destroyed.
Death can occur when the animal’s capacity or requirement for oxygen can be no longer met. This can be in the short term, suddenly or a slower process which we often refer to as chronic pneumonia.
What causes pneumonia?
The agents that can cause the pneumonia are viruses, bacteria and parasites. They can act on their own or often team up for more devastating effects. In any disease there is always a battle between immunity (good) and infection (bad). This is why pneumonia control can be so complicated – it’s not just the agents, but all the factors that allow them to multiply. In fact it is probably more important to focus on the factors that affect immunity than those agents that cause it.
It sounds a bit strange that we would ignore the bacteria and viruses. However, let me explain why we might take this approach. If you go into most farms, the bacteria and viruses that cause pneumonia are already there. Some bacteria reside in the tonsils of cattle and viruses like IBR in the nerves in the head. They will only overcome the immune system if their numbers increase, for example when buying in stressed animals shedding IBR, or when the immune system is compromised. So most of our herds can have these viruses circulating and often just require a trigger or stressor to allow them to cause the symptoms of pneumonia.
The cause
IBR, RSV and PI3 are the main viruses causing pneumonia on Irish farms. The bacteria are mannhaemia haemolytica, histophilus, pasteurella and over recent years we are seeing mycoplasma in some suckler herds as well.
It is fair to say most farms will have some of these agents present. So, if we know that the bugs that cause pneumonia are pretty widespread then we can understand why the other factors we will cover in this series become so important to manage.
Over the last month another cause of pneumonia has reared its head – lungworm or hoose. These spaghetti-like parasites can irritate airways and lung tissue, opening the door to viruses and bacteria. They also can cause death on their own. In the coming weeks we will be dealing with lungworm and its role in pneumonia in more detail.
Can we do better?
Are we getting better at pneumonia management on our farms? I would say yes and this could be put down to the widespread introduction of vaccines. But can we do better still?
We need to look at reducing antibiotics on farm animals because of the very real problem of antibiotic resistance. We certainly will not be able to rely on oral antibiotics in feed and we will all have to proactively try to reduce our antibiotic usage.
This series will give people a sound footing in the risk areas and also tips to understand how we can get better. We have created over 20 videos detailing every aspect of pneumonia and its control. Follow the links to start watching.
Cost-effective weight gain is a key factor for weanling enterprises. Something that can put a significant dent in that is a sick animal with pneumonia. Pneumonia is contagious, particularly viral pneumonia. So one sick animal can lead to more and more.
Say we have a batch of 50 weanlings doing fairly well up to weaning. Then an outbreak of pneumonia occurs.
If you lose a weanling this is a very direct cost at about €900. It would not be uncommon to end up treating seven to eight of the group and in some cases all of the group. A conservative treatment bill would be €350 for seven weanlings.
This is often where people put the emphasis on cost for pneumonia. However, there is a much greater loss which is often invisible. Remember the lungs are fuel for the engine. What happens when fuel runs low? This will lead to reduced growth rates.
In a group like this the animals who were treated are going to have lung damage, but I guarantee even the in-contacts that got mild pneumonia will have reduced growth rates.
What if some of these are replacements? How long will an animal last in a herd with damaged lungs? Remember the lungs won’t heal, damage is for life.In a batch of weanlings you could see an outbreak like this knocking back finishing by 30 to 40 days. Across a group of 50 weanlings, if 25 were affected:
Cost (€2.50 daily finishing costs) x 25 animals x 30 days longer =€1,875.00
So the cost of an outbreak like this could be
€900.00 1 mortality€350.00 treatments€1,850.00 lost performanceTotal €3,100
This makes pneumonia a very costly problem when it occurs.
There are loads of ways of looking at this figure and, to be honest, this is a conservative estimate.
With any infection the earlier we spot it the more chance we have of our treatments working well. So what are the symptoms?
Firstly, let’s step back and say what’s normal. We want any group feeding as a group, no animals slow to get up or separated from the group. Bright heads, ears and full stomachs. We don’t want ear drops, snotty noses or coughing. It is important to know what is normal and pick up problems. always asking why. Why are animals coughing more, why are they slow to come to feed?
Then when we note unusual problems we need to examine these animals. Waiting is not an option, it might end up being a very costly exercise.
Individual clinical signs
Again, when looking at an individual animal, check if it has a discharge from the nose, ears down and/or increased breathing rate (>50 a minute). The temperature can be a very useful guide. I use 37.5-38.5°C as my normal. I start worrying if it goes over 39.0°C.
A high temperature can indicate a lot of things but with other symptoms we start putting the pieces together. This is very useful when deciding to treat or not. It can be useful when describing symptoms to your vet or deciding that the animal needs veterinary assessment.
In our videos we really show how you can do this on your farm.
So, we have looked at the basics about pneumonia. It’s been simple things, but that’s where I have seen the most impact on farms – being brilliant at the basics around respiratory disease control.
So when we have pneumonia there is value in finding out firstly is it pneumonia that is the problem. Next decide what agents might be causing it. This really feeds into your actions around treatments and more importantly long-term control plans.
So the worst-case scenario is that an animal dies. The value of post-mortems cannot be underestimated, these can be done on farm by your vet or sent to RVL (regional veterinary lab).
If lungworm was involved it can be seen clearly right there, feeding directly into the decision to treat the rest of the group. The lungs can be sampled to see what bacteria viruses might have caused the problem. This could feed into treatments. For example, diagnosing mycoplasma can limit what antibiotics work well. Most importantly, it feeds into specific vaccination protocols that can help control pneumonia in the herd.
I certainly would be hoping with good early detection that we rely little on post-mortems for our information.
The good news is we can investigate a problem when it occurs. I have found deep nasal swabs really helped when I investigated cases. This is something only your vet can do and, along with blood sampling, it will allow us get some information about the bugs that are causing the problem.
When carrying out swabs it is recommended to alcohol swab nose area and use a deep guarded swab reaching to the point of the eye in length. Samples can be sent to Farmlab Diagnostics in Roscommon.
So with this information we can think about short-term treatment plans but also long-term vaccination programmes. I remember last year in an early autumn calving unit doing some work which the farmer felt pointless because of the time it took and cost. However, roll on one year and some changes along with a more specific vaccine in the herd, he now sees the benefit of an investigation. Preventing disease requires a bit more patience but is far more profitable long term.
I always say making a diagnosis can really make a difference.
Read more
Watch: vaccination and ventilation are key factors in tackling pneumonia
Watch: tackling pneumonia by minimising stress and managing lungworm
Tackling pneumonia: treatments and best practice when purchasing weanlings
Over the next four weeks, we will be dealing with everything related to pneumonia. Each of the articles will be supported by videos that show how we can get a handle on respiratory disease in our suckler herds. Last year close to 50% of all dead weanlings submitted to regional veterinary laboratories were diagnosed with pneumonia as the cause of death. It is the number one animal health problem the Irish beef farmer faces. So follow this series to see where you can apply this knowledge to your farm.
Pneumonia is the inflammation of airways and soft lung tissue. It can be severe or mild but this damage to this soft tissue which transports oxygen from air into the bloodstream is detrimental to this animal’s performance and can be fatal.
The lungs are the place where the fuel of life is poured into the engine. This fuel is oxygen, which is needed for maintenance and growth. On our farms, growing weanlings means profit and dead animals can be devastating.
The lungs of cattle are smaller and arguably, have to then work harder to keep up. When inflammation and infection occur in the lungs it can do lasting damage. This means the healthy tissues and tiny air saccules that soak up this oxygen can be permanently destroyed.
Death can occur when the animal’s capacity or requirement for oxygen can be no longer met. This can be in the short term, suddenly or a slower process which we often refer to as chronic pneumonia.
What causes pneumonia?
The agents that can cause the pneumonia are viruses, bacteria and parasites. They can act on their own or often team up for more devastating effects. In any disease there is always a battle between immunity (good) and infection (bad). This is why pneumonia control can be so complicated – it’s not just the agents, but all the factors that allow them to multiply. In fact it is probably more important to focus on the factors that affect immunity than those agents that cause it.
It sounds a bit strange that we would ignore the bacteria and viruses. However, let me explain why we might take this approach. If you go into most farms, the bacteria and viruses that cause pneumonia are already there. Some bacteria reside in the tonsils of cattle and viruses like IBR in the nerves in the head. They will only overcome the immune system if their numbers increase, for example when buying in stressed animals shedding IBR, or when the immune system is compromised. So most of our herds can have these viruses circulating and often just require a trigger or stressor to allow them to cause the symptoms of pneumonia.
The cause
IBR, RSV and PI3 are the main viruses causing pneumonia on Irish farms. The bacteria are mannhaemia haemolytica, histophilus, pasteurella and over recent years we are seeing mycoplasma in some suckler herds as well.
It is fair to say most farms will have some of these agents present. So, if we know that the bugs that cause pneumonia are pretty widespread then we can understand why the other factors we will cover in this series become so important to manage.
Over the last month another cause of pneumonia has reared its head – lungworm or hoose. These spaghetti-like parasites can irritate airways and lung tissue, opening the door to viruses and bacteria. They also can cause death on their own. In the coming weeks we will be dealing with lungworm and its role in pneumonia in more detail.
Can we do better?
Are we getting better at pneumonia management on our farms? I would say yes and this could be put down to the widespread introduction of vaccines. But can we do better still?
We need to look at reducing antibiotics on farm animals because of the very real problem of antibiotic resistance. We certainly will not be able to rely on oral antibiotics in feed and we will all have to proactively try to reduce our antibiotic usage.
This series will give people a sound footing in the risk areas and also tips to understand how we can get better. We have created over 20 videos detailing every aspect of pneumonia and its control. Follow the links to start watching.
Cost-effective weight gain is a key factor for weanling enterprises. Something that can put a significant dent in that is a sick animal with pneumonia. Pneumonia is contagious, particularly viral pneumonia. So one sick animal can lead to more and more.
Say we have a batch of 50 weanlings doing fairly well up to weaning. Then an outbreak of pneumonia occurs.
If you lose a weanling this is a very direct cost at about €900. It would not be uncommon to end up treating seven to eight of the group and in some cases all of the group. A conservative treatment bill would be €350 for seven weanlings.
This is often where people put the emphasis on cost for pneumonia. However, there is a much greater loss which is often invisible. Remember the lungs are fuel for the engine. What happens when fuel runs low? This will lead to reduced growth rates.
In a group like this the animals who were treated are going to have lung damage, but I guarantee even the in-contacts that got mild pneumonia will have reduced growth rates.
What if some of these are replacements? How long will an animal last in a herd with damaged lungs? Remember the lungs won’t heal, damage is for life.In a batch of weanlings you could see an outbreak like this knocking back finishing by 30 to 40 days. Across a group of 50 weanlings, if 25 were affected:
Cost (€2.50 daily finishing costs) x 25 animals x 30 days longer =€1,875.00
So the cost of an outbreak like this could be
€900.00 1 mortality€350.00 treatments€1,850.00 lost performanceTotal €3,100
This makes pneumonia a very costly problem when it occurs.
There are loads of ways of looking at this figure and, to be honest, this is a conservative estimate.
With any infection the earlier we spot it the more chance we have of our treatments working well. So what are the symptoms?
Firstly, let’s step back and say what’s normal. We want any group feeding as a group, no animals slow to get up or separated from the group. Bright heads, ears and full stomachs. We don’t want ear drops, snotty noses or coughing. It is important to know what is normal and pick up problems. always asking why. Why are animals coughing more, why are they slow to come to feed?
Then when we note unusual problems we need to examine these animals. Waiting is not an option, it might end up being a very costly exercise.
Individual clinical signs
Again, when looking at an individual animal, check if it has a discharge from the nose, ears down and/or increased breathing rate (>50 a minute). The temperature can be a very useful guide. I use 37.5-38.5°C as my normal. I start worrying if it goes over 39.0°C.
A high temperature can indicate a lot of things but with other symptoms we start putting the pieces together. This is very useful when deciding to treat or not. It can be useful when describing symptoms to your vet or deciding that the animal needs veterinary assessment.
In our videos we really show how you can do this on your farm.
So, we have looked at the basics about pneumonia. It’s been simple things, but that’s where I have seen the most impact on farms – being brilliant at the basics around respiratory disease control.
So when we have pneumonia there is value in finding out firstly is it pneumonia that is the problem. Next decide what agents might be causing it. This really feeds into your actions around treatments and more importantly long-term control plans.
So the worst-case scenario is that an animal dies. The value of post-mortems cannot be underestimated, these can be done on farm by your vet or sent to RVL (regional veterinary lab).
If lungworm was involved it can be seen clearly right there, feeding directly into the decision to treat the rest of the group. The lungs can be sampled to see what bacteria viruses might have caused the problem. This could feed into treatments. For example, diagnosing mycoplasma can limit what antibiotics work well. Most importantly, it feeds into specific vaccination protocols that can help control pneumonia in the herd.
I certainly would be hoping with good early detection that we rely little on post-mortems for our information.
The good news is we can investigate a problem when it occurs. I have found deep nasal swabs really helped when I investigated cases. This is something only your vet can do and, along with blood sampling, it will allow us get some information about the bugs that are causing the problem.
When carrying out swabs it is recommended to alcohol swab nose area and use a deep guarded swab reaching to the point of the eye in length. Samples can be sent to Farmlab Diagnostics in Roscommon.
So with this information we can think about short-term treatment plans but also long-term vaccination programmes. I remember last year in an early autumn calving unit doing some work which the farmer felt pointless because of the time it took and cost. However, roll on one year and some changes along with a more specific vaccine in the herd, he now sees the benefit of an investigation. Preventing disease requires a bit more patience but is far more profitable long term.
I always say making a diagnosis can really make a difference.
Read more
Watch: vaccination and ventilation are key factors in tackling pneumonia
Watch: tackling pneumonia by minimising stress and managing lungworm
Tackling pneumonia: treatments and best practice when purchasing weanlings
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