LAUSR

This report is produced each month by the APHA Surveillance Intelligence Unit and the six Species Expert Groups (livestock and wildlife). The international horizonscanning summaries are produced by the Defra/APHA International Disease Monitoring (IDM) team, notifiable disease reports by the APHA Veterinary Exotic and Notifiable Disease Unit (VENDU), and threat analysis by the cross-agency Veterinary Risk Group (VRG). The report is drawn from scanning surveillance information, data and reports produced by the APHA Veterinary Investigation Centres and non-APHA partner postmortem examination providers contributing to the VIDA database and complying with standardised diagnostic and laboratory testing criteria. Other livestock and wildlife scanning surveillance reports may also be found at www.gov.uk/government/collections/animal-disease-surveillance-reports Highlights from the scanning surveillance network Cattle Metabolic bone disease Recumbent weaned animals were a feature of investigations by the APHA Shrewsbury Veterinary Investigation Centre (VIC) on four farms. Two of these cases were in fattening bulls, while, more unusually, two were in replacement dairy heifers. The affected dairy heifers were between four and six months old. In the largest herd of 450 cows, five of a group of 60 heifers were reported to have become recumbent over a period of about three weeks. They made repeated attempts to rise without success. In the second dairy herd of 200 cows, three heifers in a group of 60 became recumbent. The calves remained bright and continued to eat and drink but were unable to stand. Two animals were submitted for postmortem examination from each of the herds. Postmortem examinations confirmed that each of the four calves had poorly calcified ribs, which were easily bent, and the cortical bone of the femurs was thinner than expected for the age and weight of the calves (Fig 1). In nutritionists on feeding cattle, to ensure that suitable diets are being fed. There are significant welfare implications when such cases of metabolic bone disease occur, and severely affected animals should be humanely euthanased. Once the diagnosis is reached, there is a need for careful handling and prompt dietary supplementation of the remaining animals, which usually respond well to these management changes. Advice on the feeding of young fattening animals and replacement heifers can be found at: • http://beefandlamb.ahdb.org. uk/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/ BRP-Feeding-growing-and-finishingmanual-7-040417.pdf • https://dairy.ahdb.org.uk/ technical-information/feeding/#. XMhGOZUUm1s one calf, the femoral epiphyses had collapsed so that the distal part of the femurs was easily broken with manual manipulation, and a fracture of the distal femur was present in another animal. The heifers in the first herd were receiving a diet of wheat, soya, rape meal, distillers’ grains and spring barley straw; however, there was no mineral or vitamin supplement. In the second herd, a rolled barley and rolled beans ration was being fed with an insufficient quantity of general purpose commercial minerals/vitamins and molasses added. The two cases in fattening bulls were in older animals, and again the underlying fault was a poorly supplemented diet. It is recommended that stock keepers seek expert advice from Fig 1: Femurs from fourto sixmonth-old dairy heifers showing cortical thinning and distal pathological fractures