Agricultural News
Dr. Dave Sparks Offers Trich Update
Sun, 13 Mar 2011 20:59:54 CDT
By now most Oklahoma beef producers know the Oklahoma legislature passed a law in 2010 requiring testing for Trichomoniasis in non-virgin breeding bulls over 1 year of age changing ownership or management within the state of Oklahoma. According to Dr. Dave Sparks, Eastern Oklahoma Extension Vet, a six month period was allowed for educating producers about this disease and about the new law, with regulations going into place on January 1, 2011. In review, Trichomoniasis is a highly contagious, venereal disease of beef cattle that causes poor reproductive performance and pregnancy wastage in cattle. The new regulations were needed to safeguard the Oklahoma cattle industry as this disease was seen to be on the rise here and in adjoining states.
During the education phase of the new program, OSU Extension and Oklahoma Department of Agriculture Food and Forestry (ODAFF) have conducted approximately 55 county and area educational meetings attended by about 2,500 cattle producers across the state. ODAFF and the OSU College of Veterinary Medicine have held 12 training programs for veterinarians where 362 food animal veterinarians have become certified to do the tests for regulatory purposes.
In the two months since the testing became mandatory, Oklahoma Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab at Stillwater and the veterinary lab at CSU have tested 547 Oklahoma bulls for trich with a positive finding rate of slightly over 3%. This is very close to what the expectations were on the prevalence of the disease in Oklahoma. A few Oklahoma bulls have been tested in the Northeast and Southwest with the samples sent to the Missouri and Texas labs. There have been 2 positive Oklahoma bulls reported from the Texas lab.
Although this program is still in its infancy it is starting to be apparent how much it was needed. If this rate continues, 3% of all the bulls in Oklahoma is a lot of bulls and represents a lot of potential economic hardship for a lot of producers. Every infected bull identified is one less infected herd. If you would like to know more about this disease, or specifics for this program contact a food animal veterinarian in your area, or contact Dr. Dave Sparks, Eastern Oklahoma extension veterinarian at 918-686-7800, Dr. Gene Parker, Western Oklahoma extension veterinarian at 580-255-0546, or Dr. Rod Hall, ODAFF staff veterinarian at 405-522-6126.
Our thanks to Dave Sparks for this update on the regulation of Trichomoniasis in the state of Oklahoma.
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