COWS SLIPPING THEIR CALVES.

Otago Witness, Issue 3510, 21 June 1921, Page 10

COWS SLIPPING THEIR CALVES.

The value of a cow to-day is almost wholly dependent on the animal having a calf, and remaining in milk each year. Disease may well be feared and guarded against, and cases of abortion, however rare, should be closely examined. It may happen that an owner will sell his infected cows suffering may be from some notifiable disease—an offence which cannot be too severely condemned, as it may cause great loss and possibly ruin to the purchaser. Not every case of abortion among cows, of course, is contagious; but it should be suspected as such and precautions taken, li e have heard of a good many cows this season slipping their calves. The causes may he either of many. The result, for instance, of an accident by horned cattle fighting among one another, or a strange cow may have been introduced in the herd of springing cows and milkers and desires to assert her superiority, or the cows may be roughly “•dogged” to and from the milking shed, and at times be may prove the most expensive “help” on earth. The careless leg-roping of a nervous cow may cause the trouble, a slippery floor may cause “springing” cows to fall and injure themselves. The access from one paddock to another through an awkward gateway, over rails, wire, etc., may cause trouble. Or ergot, a parasitic plant growth, may cause cattle to abort by eating it in their feed, or in the injudicious feeding of perhaps a highly fermented foodstuff there may lurk trouble. The foregoing examples may be cited as eases of accidental abortion, and are in quite a different street to contagious abortion. When several cases of abortion have occurred in a herd within a short time, the existence of contagious abortion may be considered as certain. No case of contagious abortion can take place without direct or indirect contact with an antecedent ease. Cows in calf arc likely to abort if they are permitted (1) to come into contact with an animal that lias recentlv aborted, or (2) to come into contact with an aborted f<ctus, or (3) to eat food material contaminated with the discharge of a cow that lias aborted. This may occur through grazing in paddocks in which cows have aborted, or have been allowed to run, after abortion, before all discharges from the womb have ceased. Natural infection occurs either by the mouth or genital tract. Mr Hugh Begg, F.R.C.V.S., of Lanark County, in reference to “suspects” says: “Contact of the herd with strange animals should not be allowed. Refuse the use of the bull to strange c-ows, and don’t mate cows with a strange, bull. If special circumstances create an exception, apply measures of disinfection to the bull. Isolate and prove every bought in the dairy cow, and i* l a newly-born calf is bought, it should be isolated, and its dejects disinfected for a period of 10 days. Be careful of grazing pregnant cows on common pasture

where they may he exposed to infection. Avoid soiling of fodder bv strange persons or dogs or other animals coining about the premises. If any cow calves prematurely. or shows signs of impending abortion, isolate her at once and call in a \ eturinary surgeon to treat her, adopt measures of disinfection, and take a sample of blood to test the nature of the case.” the treatment recomended bv I)r brakes to adopt whenever a cow actun’lv aborts may here be briefly noted. ' Search diligently for the foetus (i.e, the aborted immature calf), and destroy it bv burning it on the spot, using kerosene, if necessary, as an aid to ensure complete destruction. D is not feasible bury the foetus deeply, taking care to throw in to the hole the surface soil. Dig up the ground where the fetus has actually lain, and saturate the surface soil \\ ith disinfectant. Isolate the cow for some tour weeks, using a temporary bail, for milking purposes, irrigate the cow. Never allow a recently aoorted cow to enter the yard or milking sued Jf a number of cows keep returning to the hull, treat the whole herd, the treatment to be at the one time. In al. cases the bull should be treated No newly-purchased hull should be allowed access to the cows until be has been properly irrigated, nor should any newlvp lire based cow be admitted to the herd until treated with one of the antiseptic solutions recognised as reliable. When one realises that in the ilomelrnd some 0 pei cent, of the herds are estimated to be affected with contagious abortion, and that losses from abortion in the l mted States within the last year or two amounted to some four million pounds, 'u n ™ rel y evident that dairy farmers should beware, and do everything possible to suppress this most insidious disertse.