Listen To This Story
Researchers with the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources are finding more cases of a tick-borne disease in Nebraska’s cattle.
Anaplasmosis is a disease caused primarily by Anaplasma marginale, a red blood cell parasite of cattle. The parasite can be transferred through blood by tick bites, from pregnant cows to calf in utero, and mechanical transfer of blood.
IANR researchers said the main concern with the infection is how it affects the older populations of cattle within a herd. The article says cattle greater than 2 years of age that are infected for the first time, risk of death can approach 50% of cases.
Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Center’s diagnostic pathologist and extension vet Matt Hille said the disease is not new in the U.S and isn’t a danger for beef consumers.
“It's relatively inexpensive. And it's, the main treatment that's used to kind of manage this is tetracycline, which is something that most ranchers will have used for other purposes in the past,” Hille said.
Hille stressed that the infection does not contaminate Nebraska’s food supply. The doctor said that humans are not susceptible to the cattle’s bacterial illness. Researchers want to simply inform ranchers to look for signs to help prevent and treat their cattle populations.
Hille added that tetracycline can be administered in feed for the herd or by an injectable antibiotic for animals experiencing the infection. He noted that the treatment does not cure the bacterial infection but keeps it manageable in terms of symptoms and transmission among the herd.
“Most of the time it's not going to completely clear the infection,” said Hille. “They'll remain carriers, but you may be able to minimize their load, and therefore how much they're transmitting to other animals and minimize any clinical signs in, in that individual animal.”
Hille provided guidance for farmers looking to prevent the introduction of the disease to their herds.
“If your herd is uninfected, then the goal would be to test any new animals that people bring in, and ensure that you're only bringing in negative animals,” Hille said. “The main thing to look for with, any anemia, but with anaplasmosis is, what's called, Icarus, so yellowing around the whites of the eyes."