After 5 year receiving a clean report on Brucellosis I got the shock of my life in 2011 that out of the blue about 50% of my herd tested positive for Brucellosis. After carefull looking into the numbers listed on that dreadful report it appeared to be a mixed bag from cows with an excellent production records and at that stage pregnant and with suckling calf’s to non-pregnant cows to young heifers (first time mating).
All heifers at the age of 7 months are inoculated with OBP-S19 and again a month later which brings me to 8 months (the prescribed allowed age to inoculate heifers). The other major shock to me was when I insisted that the Bulls get tested and some of my learned friends in the veterinary sphere said no ways not possible to other phrases that I will not repeat…guess what 3 bulls tested positive with high sperm counts and by the looks of things ready to go and so by the way they have tested all negative for Trich.
It is well documented that Bulls do no transfer the brucellosis diseases to cows during the mating process…..is it really so or just a test with a product sale in mind…. Being a responsible citizen and love farming, I started the culling process (what a financial loss….) on the one hand and started inoculation of all healthy female cattle with RB51 and this was repeated a month later.
The 2012 test report on the remaining herd is still outstanding but the bull report already showed 2 bulls that were purchased last year in a stud auction as being positive for Brucellosis. The question must be asked:
- Do the stud breeders test the bulls before the auction or does the health certificate get issued without this being a compulsory test?
- The RB51 cover strain 1 and as far as I can remember strain1 does not appear in South Africa only strain 19, if so then why is this product being used?
- Are we not introducing a strain that will come back to bite us?
- How do we treat the bulls?
- Is the OBP-S19 product still working?
- Many commercial herds are infected by Brucellosis but they remain productive so why should we concern ourselves with the clean status…
- There is no financial advantage for presenting a brucellosis calf to the feedlot or to the abattoir is there? But if this presents a national threat then we better get our ducks in a row.
I have much more questions but I guess this is sufficient to start the discussion as I only have the interest to produce a safe and healthy product for the South African market with-in a commercial viable model. Thanks
