I did my first BT vaccination 3 weeks ago and after 2 weeks I am virtually sure that one of my best cows has aborted. There may be more? She was due around December time but has been showing like she was about to give birth except she's not got any weight on her. Now her udder is going down again.
I've never had an abortion before, so as far as I'm concerned it was due to the vaccine, it's far too much of a coincidence not to be. The foot-trimmer who visited today said they knew someone who'd had 20 abortions after the vaccine. I hope that by next year, they have the matter sorted. It's no wonder it's not mandatory otherwise the government would be into some very big claims.
I'm not trying to put anyone off vaccinating. The best advice is do it, but be aware of what may happen. People say keep it calm and everything will be hunky-dory...we have just run through 120 cattle in half a day...try keeping them calm. My bull lifted a 400 kg steer up in the air like he wasn't there, rammed another one into the fence...and he's a nice bull! Last time we had to do 500 sheep at the same time. All good fun
Clive, sorry if you have lost a calf - I am sure you will be wathching her carefully, have her PD'd when you can.
Whilst the physical handling can do damage, and it is even possible that a new vaccine may have unexpected effects, we need to remember that abortions in cattle do go on all the time, and during a big vaccination campagn a certain number are going to coincide with the vaccinations. Lots of infectious disease circulates in the cattle population which may cause abortion - BVD, leptospirosis, IBR, neospora, and lots more.
We should also remember that with the stopping of routine brucella testing of beef cattle (dairy bulk milk still tested) it is even more important to report any abortions to Animal Health, who will investigate for brucella free of charge. This gets your vet on to farm and he/she can take extra samples for you to have tested against the common causes.
If we suspect any adverse reaction it is also important that it is reported to the VMD (veterinary medicines directorate) and the manufacturer. I have had to do this today for a client who injected a cow with an antibiotic on Saturday and she rolled her eyes, leant against her neighbour in the milking parlour and slid to the floor dead. We think the injection probably went into a vein inadvertantly and caused heart failure, but is still important to report it so that if similar things are happening elsewhere the whole picture is available.
Duncan
Duncan MacIntyre
Burnside Dexters 00316
Burnside
Ascog
Isle of Bute
I agree with what you say about reporting abortions to Animal Health, but trust me it does not always work out. I had a heifer produce a bulldog calf back in February. I rang the vet and explained. The vet asked if the animal required medical attention. I said no, she seemed ok, but I assumed the vet would need to take blood tests. The vet said no. She told me to ring Animal Health if I was worried, and gave me the telephone number. I rang Animal Health and explained why I was ringing. The woman there suggested I should ring my vet if I was worried about the heifer! I tried to explain that I had a letter from them telling me that I MUST report any abortions, but she just did not want to know! At that point I gave up! ???
I wonder if both your vet and the Animal Health Office have discounted the need for brucella testing because the cause of abortion was assumed to be the bulldog. You could of course have a cow produce a bulldog and be affected by brucellosis but it is extremely unlikely.
It is a legal requirement to report all bovine abortions to Animal Health. They do not investigate every case but they do keep note and if more than one or two have occurred on a holding in a short time then there is almost certainly an investigation. Your vet probably suggested that you phone because she suspected there would not be an investigation. Normally what happens here is that farmers report the abortion to me, and I phone Animal Health and have to answer some questions and a secretary decides if it fits the investigation criteria or not. A bit of a nuisance for vets in practice because we usually know the answer before the questions are asked. So we spend time and effort on useless phonecalls. Or they system does not work because farmers won't waste time on the phone calls. As LVIs's we do of course get paid by Animal Health if we are asked to do an investigations, but if not we get nothing.
Duncan
Duncan MacIntyre
Burnside Dexters 00316
Burnside
Ascog
Isle of Bute
Living right in the firing line for BT I was one of the first to vaccinate. Just to reassure everyone - I have had no problems at all with sheep or cattle. No abortions yet and I vaccinated in May. I would have expected something to happen by now.
I have not heard of any problems with the big Dairy farms around here either.
There have been a lot of rumours around the country however. We will just have to wait and see.
Di
Well I had the vet around after reporting the abortion as Duncan suggested, and she hasn't aborted, in fact she wasn't in calf! She had bagged up extremely big and tight (on poor grazing) just as though she was about to calve, but months early, which I've never seen in any of my cows before unless they were about to give birth, and went off on her own all the time, which she never does either.
