UPDATE. Why Optimising Trace Element Levels Matters FRANKLINVETS JUNE

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1 FRANKLINVETS UPDATE JUNE 2017 Why Optimising Trace Eement Leves Matters Dr Greg Lindsay BVSc At this time of year, the focus for penty of you out there is removing ducks from their rows! For veterinarians onfarm however, the emphasis is a about getting ducks in their rows prior to caving. This incudes ensuring cows are on-track to achieve condition score targets, getting average pasture covers on-track, formaising goas and objectives for the new season, and getting farm staff and systems readied for the crazy caving period. Another box that we routiney check off at this time of year is ensuring that eves of trace eements are optimised. Performing iver biopsies and suppementing accordingy guarantees that herds enter the new season with penty of these production imiting mineras in reserve. For catte, one of the most important mineras is copper, and it is the reason that we now ony use iver biopsies as the method for testing; bood testing is just too unreiabe. Starting the season with a herd ow in copper is ike growing grass without fertiiser Yes, you grow grass, but nowhere near as much as when mineras essentia for pant heath are optimised. Mik production wi be reduced, cows wi be more susceptibe to disease and reproductive performance wi be significanty imited. One of the more dramatic effects of ow copper seen in recent times has been the outbreaks of fractured foreimbs in dairy heifers and second cavers. Athough a cear mechanism has not yet been described for this condition, it is certainy reated to and encouraged by poor copper status. Oddy it was about the time that these fractures started appearing that veterinarians around the country began seeing another condition caed Sciatic Pasy or Dropped Hock Syndrome. The photo beow shows an anima which was recenty diagnosed with the condition. With predictabe simiarity, the condition affects heifer and second caver age-groups usuay towards the end of their first season. Aso, somewhat unsurprisingy, iver testing of these animas often identifies heaviy depeted copper stores. Unfortunatey, recovery and return to fu heath is ony rarey seen with both these conditions. MPI is investigating both of these conditions in an attempt to better understand them, so pease be sure to engage your veterinarian if you see either of these symptoms. Mora of the story don t forget about your incumbent heifers when you are testing and suppementing your catte this Autumn. 1

2 We need to tak about AMR AMR or antimicrobia resistance is when bacteria deveop the abiity to survive exposure to eves of antibiotics that woud traditionay ki them. AMR of some bacteria to certain antibiotics has been around for a ong time. It is the increasing number of bacteria that are resistant to mutipe antibiotics, and the increasing prevaence of AMR in the human popuation that is bringing the issue to the attention of poicy makers. AMR causes oss of productivity from your animas due to treatments that woud normay work faiing. A cow with mastitis that you cannot cure despite repeated attempts is a common exampe. You have the cost of the numerous antibiotics that you try, aso the cost of dumped mik, and aso utimatey the cost to repace that cow if she is cued. In addition to the financia costs we must consider the anima wefare impacts. Having a painfu condition such as mastitis that cannot be cured isn t much fun for the cow! In addition to the direct effects on your animas and business, there is aso increasing anxiety about the potentia for AMR bacteria to be passed from animas to humans. AMR in humans is ikey to become one of the argest pubic heath issues over the coming years. It is aready estimated that over individuas die each year in the USA aone from AMR bacteria infections. It shoud be noted that in NZ we are aready doing a fairy good job of ooking after our antibiotics (we were 3rd owest users in the OECD in a recent study) and much higher eves of antibiotic are used in humans than animas. However, it is inevitabe that increasing scrutiny wi be paced on our use of antibiotics in animas. Broady speaking we wi come under increasing pressure to reduce usage in two areas: 1. Reduced use of criticay important antibiotics. These are antibiotics that are considered critica for medica use in humans. For exampe these casses of antibiotics are used to treat meningitis in chidren and are used to treat Samonea in the edery. The good news is NZ as a whoe aready uses ess of these criticay important drugs than many other countries. Aso for the ones we do use, there are good aternatives avaiabe. 2. Reduce use of antibiotics for disease prevention. Using antibiotics on animas that do not have disease is coming under increasing pressure internationay and in NZ, as this practice increases AMR seection. Many European nations have Dr Brent Nea BVSc aready banned the practice and more are in the process of impementing contros/restrictions. As an exporting nation we wi ikey have to impement these changes aso. The most common use of antibiotic to prevent infection in NZ is the use of drycow in ow SCC (non-infected) cows. The practice of whoe herd drycow administration is ikey to come under increasing restrictions and this wi have knock on effects if not managed carefuy. A good exampe of this was seen with the recent ow payout years and farms eecting to stop or seectivey drycow their herds. We have noted that in many cases this has resuted in high eves of cinica mastitis the foowing season. This obviousy costs the farmers a ot of money in treatment and dumped mik as we as being an anima wefare issue - and we sti end up using a ot of antibiotic. Non-antibiotic interna teat seaants such as teatsea may offer an aternative but must be paced into appropriate cows using strict aseptic techniques. Your vet wi be abe to discuss this option with you to decide the best pan of attack. Nothing is compusory at this stage and no changes are being forced onto anybody. We must however consider the changes that are happening internationay. With most of the arge bodies such as Federated Farmers, Fonterra, MPI, NZVA a on board, change wi occur at some stage. As an industry we are better to be eading this process in a scientific and considered approach. If we bury our heads in the sand and do nothing change is ikey to be forced upon us by poiticians and goodness knows what they wi come up with! We wi be activey engaging with our cients to discuss what changes are on the horizon and offering aternatives that wi cause as itte disruption to your business as possibe. 2

3 Sad farewe to one of our own As many of you wi be aware, the ast few weeks have been a chaenge for our team as we come to terms with the sudden death of Papakura Farm Vet Dr John Prangey, who had been a part of the Frankin Vets famiy for 18 years. John wi be remembered as an incrediby caring vet, as we as being one of ife s characters, and amongst the tears there has aso been ots of aughter as we have recaed some of John s stories. I woud ike to pass on our thanks to our cients and the community for the outpouring of support and memories at this chaenging time. Farm Vets Dr Goran Medic and Dr Laura Schwerdtfeger, both of whom have worked aongside John at our Papakura cinic, wi be covering farm cas for the area whie we review our pans going forward. Dr Mark Hosking, BVSc, MBA(dist), MACVSc Managing Director, Frankin Vets. Caf Roadshow 2017 Your caves...your future was the theme of this year s Frankin Vets Caf Roadshow. With veterinary speakers from both Frankin Vet Services and MSD, this week-ong roadshow imparted the newest information and techniques from the caf rearing industry. The unch time events were hed in Te Kauwhata, Taupiri, Patumahoe and Puriri. Presentations were geared towards heping those who attended improve their current young stock management to achieve maximum resuts in terms of growth rates, and subsequent reproductive and production outcomes. A attendees received a hand out fu of usefu, hands on information and tips for rearing your caves and young stock. If you woud ike a copy of this presentation pease emai ksim@fvs.co.nz Dairy Farming currenty is in somewhat of an image crisis. A quick Googe search of anima wefare in New Zeaand dairy farms turns up a number of ess than fattering news artices. Teevision is unfortunatey no better, with a number of documentaries on dirty dairy and bobby caves in recent years. It s no secret that a ot of these artices come from organisations and individuas with an axe to grind. Their persona beiefs about animas used in farming and the views of our own wi more than ikey never aign. It does, however, raise an interesting debate on how we move forward. Shoud we cose ranks and stick to what been we ve a been doing and wait for the next scanda to be portrayed in the media?...or does the dairy industry need to grasp the nette and acknowedge our faws, te the story from our side and show what we are a doing to try and resove these current issues. A number of these changes are going to happen through wefare egisation changes over the next few years. I think on the whoe everyone can agree it wi make a big difference to the overa heath of animas, and utimatey improve production. There have aso been industry ead initiatives such as breeding heifers with Wagyu animas to produce a caf with an intrinsic vaue and reduce the bobby caf sector. This is in its infancy and may face its own issues but it reay shows a drive to find practica soutions to issues such as this. Simiary the WeFarm program is an industry ead initiative driven by a group of motivated veterinary businesses. The program aims to increase herd eve performance through reguar routine heath visits ooking at key anima heath indicators ike Body Condition and Locomotion (ameness) scoring. The information we coect aows us to make immediate decisions on farm and remedy any issues. It aso aows us to utiise other herd heath toos, such as those to generate individua cow dry off dates so animas are in perfect condition when they come round to cave. The WeFarm program stands on its own merits in terms of production benefits. We hope Dr David Moors, BVSc that it becomes a badge of honour to those who use the service. Every time I see one of these fake news artices, to quote The Donad, or one of the 1% of dairy farmers who do things bady pop up on my Facebook newsfeed it s aways massivey frustrating. There are truy fantastic peope working within the dairy sector and I strongy beieve we a need to be a bit prouder about what we do and speak up about how boody hard we a work to ensure good wefare standards and sustainabe farming. NEWSLETTERMAY2017 3

4 TEATSEAL and the ony thing that is inevitabe CHANGE Dr Kris Browee, BVSc Teatsea is a wonderfu product that I have seen invoved with a decrease in cinica mastitis cases in both dairy cows and heifers. It works by creating a physica barrier in the teat cana that decreases the number of bacteria that can get in and out of the udder. It has been shown by this abiity in trias to have a farm s heifer cinica mastitis rate (we see a bigger drop than haf). In dry cows the barrier heps decrease infections at dry off and caving. The barrier aso increases the cure rate of high somatic ce count cows as they don t get re-infected during the dry off season. Unfortunatey, my first farm experience with Teatsea was back in eary 2000 when LIC sod it. On one farm, I saw quite a few cow deaths and cinica mastitis cases after appication. In the foowing investigation, we found the product shoud have never been used on the cows and it was aso appied incorrecty. This can sti happen, but is now uncommon due to a better understanding on how and when it shoud be used. Frankin Vets have seen a arge growth in the number of heifers treated with teatsea 4 12 weeks prior to caving. In 2016 we managed to teatsea seven times as many heifers as we did when it first started in This needs to be put in perspective with this taking approximatey 700 hours on farm work aside from pre organising. Herd dry cow combination treatment (a dry cow antibiotic foowed by a teatsea) has aso grown over the ast few years. Back in 2008 I don t beieve Taupiri cinic sod any herds dry cow to be used in this way. In % of the Taupiri cinic serviced cows were treated with a dry cow antibiotic foowed by a teatsea. This combination treatment has managed to hep farmers contro dry off mastitis, caving mastitis and individua cow somatic ce count. Teatsea is not a siver buet and we can sti see cinica cases after dry off if it is not appied correcty as mentioned above, or if the cows have too much chaenge directy after dry off. Cows can sti manage to eak mik around the barrier and cows can sti get caving mastitis. This is due to bacteria getting into the udder around caving, however I see the barrier improving the situation on farms. Non teatsea farms can have a dry cow that has gone past its ength of action or 25% of cows that don t create a natura teat pug. Standing cows off and wet winters (which it ooks we are going to get) wi be managed better with ess resutant mastitis cases in herds with a ong acting dry cow that is sti within its ength of action or a dry cow and teatsea combination treatment. In the future, I see a change ahead for farmers who herd test and have a wemanaged udder heath situation. They have the abiity to appy teatsea ony to the cows that are ess than 150,000 somatic ce count throughout the season and save money, whie achieving the dairy industry desire to have ess antibiotics used in the dairy herd. This change wi require a sterie manner of teatsea insertion at dry off which is abe to happen on some farms and on others may require a few more man hours from the drycow/teatsea teams we manage at present. My advice is that this treatment and resutant financia saving is definitey possibe, but it requires herd testing and a change of attitude for some. I ook forward to seeing who is prepared to be the eary up-takers in this new change. 4

5 Hitting body condition at caving By Dr David Moors, BVSc With most of the herds now dry, focus is on hitting those body condition targets for the start of caving. Arriving in body condition above or beow target wi resut in reduced productivity and increased heath issues. As with their cows, most farmers wi ose weight over the caving period as the stresses of ong physica days, infrequent meas and minima seep takes its to. Losing too much weight wi ead to fatigue, stress and make you more prone to iness; this is exacty the same as with your stock. For the cow, the 60 day dry period is essentia downtime for recuperation and recovery from the stresses of a miking season. Remember this is aso true of you to some extent. Many farmers this season wi be miking ates and empty through to hep with cash fow. This a has to be baanced with avoiding hitting the caving season aready fatigued or mentay drained. Make sure you get some time away from the farm, even for an afternoon fish or a discussion group. To hep you hit those body condition scores, here is my fish cake recipe. You have to forgive the measures as I am Engish and we sti use siy things ike pints. Fish cakes Add a cup of mik and the same amount of water and a coupe of bay eaves to a fry pan and bring to a simmer. Drop in grams of Faky fish (I ve used hapuka or kingfish that I ve previousy frozen) and simmer for 4-5 minutes, turn off the heat and eave to stand unti the fish is cooked a the way through. At the same time add about grams (about 100grams ess potato than fish) potato into a pan of water and boi unti soft. Drain the potatoes. Add 1-2 tabespoons of the sauce and mash them. Season with sat and pepper. Add parsey if you have it, finey chopped spring onions or chives and some emon zest. Take the fish out of the mik and fake it into the potato mix (it wi be pretty hot). Fod a the fish into the mix. Once sighty cooed take portions of the mix and moud into patties of whatever size you ike (I generay get 5-6 out of this mix). Dip in four, then egg, then in panko bread crumbs. Fry in a pan ti goden brown and serve with saad and heaps of sauce. Sauce: 125m mayonnaise, 1tsp creamed horseradish, 1tsp Dijon mustard. Drench Resistance Where are we at? Summer is the idea time to perform a Feca Egg Count Reduction Test (FECRT) in ambs to assess your farms status. At Frankin Vets this year we have performed severa FECRTs on farms throughout the North Waikato and South Auckand area. The trends we have seen emerging are typica of those reported throughout New Zeaand by the aboratories and other veterinarians: The majority of properties have some degree of parasite drench Dr Quirien Domper BVsc resistance with one or more singe active formuations. For this reason, we very rarey recommend using singe active formuations for routine drenching. There are certainy properties throughout the country with parasites that are resistant to a three origina drench famiies. A good quarantine system shoud be used for a incoming ambs, ewes and rams. There are eary indications that we are starting to see some deveoping resistance to moxidectin. Fortunatey, the species of parasite we are finding is not usuay Barber s Poe. As has been seen in other parts of New Zeaand, we have mosty found Trichostrongyus and/or Ostertagia coming through. Both these parasites can estabish very high burdens in sheep and can resut in scouring, increased dags, i-thrift and stock osses. Moxidectin products are often used to contro Barber s Poe in trading ambs over summer. However, if you fee ike you are seeing wormy ambs shorty after a Barber s Poe drench contact you Frankin Vets Team as it may be a competey different parasite you are deaing with. The science and understanding of parasite drench resistance in New Zeaand is continuay changing. Matt Airey, Ross McDonad, Nina Mica, Mike Cupin and your Veterinary Team take pride in staying up to date with the most current research and advice. If you haven t done a FECRT in the ast two years, it is time to think about arranging one for next summer. The more information we have about your property s parasite status the better prepared you can be for chaenges now and into the future. NEWSLETTERMAY2017 5

6 Beachands Kopu Papakura Veterinary Hospita Paeroa Vets Pukekohe Veterinary Hospita Taupiri Te Kauwhata Waiuku Veterinary Hospita After Hours Farm Emergency Services No horse crush at your pace? Our mobie horse crush creates a safe working environment for the horse, owner and vet. There is a ot excitement about Frankin Vets right now with the arriva of our custom made mobie horse crush. Our new crush comfortaby & safey restrains your horse, ensures you are safe, and aows our equine vets safe and easy access to provide treatments. It aso provides a simpe soution when you just don t have the time to transport your horses for vet treatment. Equine Vet Dr Katie Kindeysides has extensive post-graduate practica training in advanced denta procedures, and is currenty undertaking further studies at Master s eve in this area. She has a keen interest in ensuring the horses under her care have a programme of preventative denta care in pace. Probems can ony be spotted in their eary treatabe stages using sedation, head restraint, ights and mirrors and the new crush offers a great secure environment for the horse to do this in. Periodonta disease (disease of the gum, bone and igaments that support the teeth) is something that a horse owners need to be aware of. If diagnosed eary and treated effectivey, the outcome shoud be a heathy horse free from denta pain that wi benefit as it ages from retaining its teeth. If you have concerns about the genera heath of horses in your care or issues during riding, a denta examination may provide the answers to what is going on. As we as dentistry, a range of other routine practices that require restraint can be performed quicky and efficienty with our new horse crush. This incudes: Weighing Reproductive examinations incuding by utrasound and to monitor pregnancy Injections in neede-shy horses Eye exams Endoscopy For more information or to book an appointment with us ca or emai equine@fvs.co.nz 4 FRANKLIN VETERINARY SERVICES 1977 LIMITED