Kanam Animal Health Association - Kaha.

25/03/2022

● Bloat In Cattle

● Bloat is simply the build up of gas in the rumen. This gas is produced as part of the normal process of digestion, and is normally lost by belching (eructation). Bloat occurs when this loss of gas is prevented. There are two sorts of bloat. The least common type is gassy bloat, which occurs when the gullet is obstructed (often by foreign objects such as potatoes) or when the animal can’t burp (such as with milk fever or tetanus). The second type of bloat is frothy bloat, which happens as the result of a stable foam developing on top of the rumen liquid, which blocks the release of the gas. This is by far the most common form of bloat, and unlike gassy bloat, it is highly seasonal with peaks in the spring and autumn. This is because the foam is formed by breakdown products from rapidly growing forages (particularly legumes such as clover and alfalfa). These increase the viscosity (stickiness) of the rumen fluid and prevent the small bubbles of gas formed by rumen fermentation from coming together to form free gas that can be belched off

● Clinical Signs

Distended left abdomen is the most obvious sign
Usually associated with pain, discomfort, and bellowing.
Death can occur within 15 minutes after the development of bloat
Gaseous bloat is usually seen in one or two animals. Frothy bloat can affect up to 25% of cases
In some cases sudden death may be the first sign seen by the stockman, although in such cases it is likely that there will be other cattle with bloat that are still alive
Diagnosis
On the clinical signs described above
History of access to lush pasture
Passing a stomach tube will distinguish between gassy and frothy bloat. If it’s gassy bloat a stomach tube passed into the rumen will allow the gas build-up to escape through the tube. No such gas is seen in frothy bloat.

●Prevention

It is much more effective to prevent bloat than treat affected animals. Management and planning can significantly reduce the number of cases. To prevent frothy bloat: 1)
If possible avoid using high-risk pastures at high-risk times. Pastures with a history of bloat problems or with a high clover content should not be used for cows soon after turnout.
Stagger turnout with buffer feeding as this will allow the rumen to adapt to the new diet. In particular try and keep up fibre intakes at risk periods.
If you have to use high-risk pastures, introduce the cattle to them slowly. In some cases restricting access to as little as ten minutes per day at the start may be necessary to prevent bloat.
Avoid starting to graze high-risk pastures when they are wet.
Administer anti-foaming agents daily if bloat is a severe problem. If this is the case and you can strip graze then spraying antifoaming oils (emulsified with water) onto the grass can significantly reduce labour costs.
Remove high-risk animals. Some animals have recurrent bloat despite prevention and treatment.

05/06/2021

NAME THAT COW: THE 6 GREAT DAIRY BREEDS
Thursday, October 6, 2016
Ever wonder where your milk comes from? I mean, what kind of cow it comes from? There are six different breeds of dairy cow in our region, and each has its own unique personality.

Holstein – The Classics
When you think of a dairy cow, you probably picture a black-and-white Holstein. Holsteins make up about 90% of the dairy cows in America, and they owe their popularity to their productivity – on average making nearly nine gallons of milk every day. Holsteins are originally from Holland, and came to America in the 1850s.


Jersey – The Little Beauties
Jersey cows are a smaller breed, with soft brown hair and great big beautiful eyes. But it’s what’s on the inside that counts, and they produce some of the richest milk, often used to produce butter and cheese. Jersey cows are originally from Britain, and came to America in the 1860s.


Brown Swiss – The Old Sweethearts
Brown Swiss cows are believed to have been around longer than any other breed – maybe it’s those centuries of wisdom that have made this breed so docile. They’re also known for their big furry ears and for being the second most productive dairy cows. Brown Swiss cows are originally from (you guessed it) Switzerland, and came to America in the 1860s.


Guernsey – The French Gold
Guernseys are known as The Royal Breed thanks to their golden milk. A high amount of beta carotene – a source of vitamin A – gives the milk its rich color. Guernsey cows are from Britain, but are believed to have originated from two French breeds. They came to America in the early 1900s.


Ayrshire – The Scottish Warriors
Ayrshires (pronounced air-sheers) used to be called Dunlops. They’re orangey-brown and known for being hardy and long-living. Ayrshires also tend to be more dominant than other dairy breeds – I like to think they’re representing their Scottish heritage. They came to America in the 1820s.


Milking Shorthorn – The Pioneers
Milking Shorthorns are known for being efficient grazers that are easy to manage, which may be why they became world travelers early on; they were the first dairy cows brought to America, New Zealand and Australia. Originally from England, Milking Shorthorns arrived on this side of the pond in the 1780s.

04/05/2021

Published on March 26, 2019

The importance of biosecurity
Biosecurity is taking measures to protect your birds from harmful biological agents, like viruses, bacteria, parasites, etc. In commercial poultry production, this generally means total confinement operations with strict rules to maintain flock health such as shower-in and out systems, special clothing, disinfection, and other measures. In small production or “backyard” poultry operations these measures aren’t always a reality. However, there are steps that should be taken to help promote biosecurity and safety for small production flocks.

Please keep in mind, biosecurity is the cheapest and most effective means of disease control available! No single disease prevention program will be effective without taking proper biosecurity measures. Biosecurity is a proven method that can help to promote the health of your flock.

In general we can say that biosecurity constitutes of three major components:

Isolation
Traffic Control
Sanitation
Isolation refers to the confinement of animals within a controlled environment. A poultry house will keep your birds in, but it also keeps unwanted visitors out. If your birds have outdoor access, it is also important that you use fencing that can guarantee the aforementioned. Isolation also applies to the practice of isolating your sick birds from the healthy birds to prevent further spreading of disease. Don’t forget to separate your birds by age groups. In many poultry operations, all-in/all-out management is applied, which allow simultaneous depopulation of facilities between flocks. It allows time for periodic clean-up and disinfection, which is often neglected.

Traffic control is not only about the supply of birds and goods, but also about the visits of people to your farm and the traffic patterns within the farm.

Sanitation addresses the cleaning and disinfection materials, equipment and people entering the farm, and the “clean” way of working on the farm.

We suggest the following measures to promote biosecurity on your farm:

Protect your birds
Chicken stop biosecurity
Restrict access to your farm and flocks. Your birds are healthy and it’s important to keep out disease from the outside surrounding.
Limit the number of people that come in contact with your birds, especially if your visitors have birds themselves. All visitors should always sanitize their hands and clean their shoes properly. We strongly advise you to provide them with clean company shoes and clothes before visiting your birds.
Limit any possible contact with wild birds as they can carry disease. This is especially true for migratory waterfowl. When your birds have outdoor access, keep them in a screened area that prevents them from any contact with wild birds.
Keep predators and rodents out! Enclose your flock properly and consider closing your facilities during the nighttime. Make sure that your birds are securely fenced in. Bury your fencing deep enough to ensure that predators like foxes, badgers and coyotes don’t get in and your birds don’t get out!
Have a proper rodent and pest control scheme in place, monitor your traps daily.
Provide proper nighttime housing, with proper ventilation. It should be attractive for the birds to spend the night.
Keeping things clean
Chicken inspection
Effective biosecurity and cleanliness go hand in hand. Parasitic, bacterial and viral diseases can stay around for weeks or even months in dirty environments.
Always keep your feed and water clean!
Keep an eye on your bedding. Birds are often consuming things off the ground, which could result in ingesting harmful parasites, bacteria or viruses that may have come from an infected bird. Always remove wet bedding and replace it with fresh dry bedding. This also includes when bedding smells bad, is damp or has become dirty.
Clean and disinfect thoroughly between batches of birds, replace all the bedding. Certain diseases can survive for a long period of time in the bedding, examples are Marek’s disease and the Avian Influenza virus.
Regular cleaning helps you to prevent the spread of diseases.
Steps for Cleaning

Thoroughly clean and scrub objects before applying disinfectant. Disinfectants are not effective if they are applied over caked on dirt, manure, or bedding.
Apply disinfectants using brushes, sponges, or spray units. Allow adequate contact time.
Dispose of used disinfectant properly.
Don’t bring along the disease with you
KipvleugelwassenDEF2mm.jpg
Vehicles, clothing and other equipment can all carry disease. When you or your farm workers have been in contact with other birds, ensure that any items that could have been in contact with those birds are cleaned thoroughly.
Footwear (shoes, boots, clogs) can be a major source of transferring disease. Make sure that you always wash and disinfect your shoes before coming in contact with poultry. We highly recommend to always have a special set of shoes when taking care of your own poultry, and even better would be to have a special set for every poultry house.
After visiting another farm, make sure that you always take a shower and change all your clothes before visiting your own birds again.
Be sure to always clean and sanitize your hands after cleaning your shoes and before entering your barn.
When bringing in new birds into an existing flock, isolate them first, to check if they haven’t picked up any new disease.
Try to prevent mixing species. Especially turkeys are rather susceptible to chicken diseases.
Limit visitors in your barns
KiplaarzenwassenDEF2mm.jpg
Try to limit the number of visitors that come in contact with your birds, especially if your visitors have birds themselves. If there is still a need for them to visit your birds, explain your biosecurity rules to them and explain why biosecurity is of importance to you. All visitors should always sanitize their hands and clean their shoes properly. We strongly advise you to provide them with clean company shoes and clothes before visiting your birds.
Try to limit exchanges in equipment, tools or supplies with other farmers. As diseases can be easily spread by sharing. When sharing is necessary, make sure to clean and disinfect before and after it reaches another property.
Never share items that cannot be properly cleaned, such as wooden pallets, fresh litter and cardboard egg cartons.

Tip: How to Make a Simple Footbath

What you will need

A low plastic pan or bin that is wide enough to fit an adult’s foot and
shallow enough that it can be stepped into easily
A plastic doormat
A disinfectant that works well and is approved by your local government
Water

Steps

Place the mat into the bottom of the bin.
Mix the disinfectant with the appropriate amount of water, pour enough disinfectant into the bin that the bottom of the mat is wet, but not enough disinfectant that peoples’ feet will get wet.
Ask any visitors to walk through the footbath and wipe their feet on the mat. The mat will scrub their shoes and apply disinfectant.
When the liquid starts to get dirty, empty it and replenish with new disinfectant. It is advisable to do this regularly, depending on your disinfectant and the number of visitors that go through it. We advise you to do replenish the disinfectant at least once per week.
Look at your birds
It is important to know in time if there may be something wrong with birds in your flock. The challenge is the fact that many avian diseases can be hard to properly diagnose. In order to help you to monitor your flock, try to register the water and feed intake, the mortality and the production daily. We have listed general symptoms to look for when inspecting your flock daily:
Sudden increase in bird deaths
Lack of appetite
Watery manure, green/yellow diarrhea
Lack of energy
Gasping for air, coughing
Sneezing birds, with nasal discharge
Drop in egg production
Increase in soft-shelled or misshapen eggs
Swollen and infected eyes
Swollen head and neck
Purple discoloration of the comb, wattles and legs
Drooping wings
Unbalanced movements
Twisting of the head and neck
If you notice any of these symptoms, contact your poultry veterinarian.
If the number of sick birds in your flock is limited, try to isolate the sick bird from the healthy flock as good as possible to prevent further spread of the disease.
Biosecurity is an important part of keeping your flocks safe and healthy. An effective biosecurity program will have its positive impact on the economic performance of your flock. As mentioned above, simple measures can be taken to promote biosecurity at your farm. By cleaning carefully and regularly, limiting contact from visitors, and being careful not to bring disease home, all poultry producers can increase the health of their flock and decrease the chance of disease. Biosecurity is crucial to the success of any operation, please contact your local HG representative to find out how we can help you to bring the biosecurity at your farm to the next level!

Author
Freek Thomassen
Freek Thomassen
Veterinarian DVM, Layers
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04/05/2021

Definition of biocontainment
: the containment of extremely pathogenic organisms (such as viruses) usually by isolation in secure facilities to prevent their accidental release especially during research
Examples of biocontainment in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
With only 65 beds meant for biocontainment or quarantine, the facilities in Omaha were meant to help stave off a pandemic, not overcome one already underway.
— Mitch Smith, New York Times, "A Nebraska Hospital Aimed to Contain the Virus. But It Had Already Spread.," 18 Mar. 2020
Established in 2005, the biocontainment and quarantine facility was one of only three places equipped to treat some of the 11 patients in the United States stricken with Ebola in 2014.
— Robert Kuznia, CNN, "What it's like on the front lines of the fight against coronavirus," 14 Mar. 2020
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'biocontainment.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors.

The first known use of biocontainment was in 1966.

09/01/2021

ALAMOMIN SANYIN MARA.1. Dauke sha'awa2. Fitar farin ruwa daga gaba3. Tsagewar farji4. Fitar kuraje a gaban mace ko namiji5. Saurin inzali.6. Ciwon idanu,har ...

17/02/2020

27/01/2020

CLASSES OF DRUGS: Drugs are often classified according to their functions or uses viz: 1.Antimicrobials. 2.Disinfectants and antiseptics. 3.Anesthetics sedatives. 4.Antihemintics. 5.Hormones. 6.Anti-inflammatory drugs. 7.Antiprotozoans. 8.Insecticides. 9.Astrigents. 10.Emetics and antiemetics.