Creating a safer environment for dairy cattle
By Micro Technologies
You can never be too careful. That’s an everyday truism in dairy production, especially when it comes to cow health. Disease-causing pathogens are everywhere and mitigating their harmful effects is a full-time concern.
Pathogens can spread to and between cattle five different ways, according to the National Milk Producers Federation (NMPF):
- Direct contact between animals
- Oral consumption with contaminated feed, contaminated raw milk, or other channels
- Inhalation, breathing in airborne virus
- Fomites, which are inanimate objects like water troughs, feed bunks, fence rails, trailers, clothing and footwear, needles, or anything else that pathogens attach to
- Vectors, such as birds, insects, wild mammals, and even domestic dogs and cats1
The old saying that “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure” has never been more true than it is now, given the outbreak of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) in cattle. However, HPAI is just one of a host of pathogens that compromise cow health. With proper prevention, however, the battle of the bugs can be won. Those preventive practices can take place both in the milking parlor and in the pens.
Pathogen diversion in the pens
According to Chris Lloyd, Business Development Specialist – Animal Biosecurity at Enviro Tech, water treatment is a good place to start when looking for critical control points in stopping pathogen transmission from birds. Unlike feed bunks or feed storage areas that are difficult at best to control bird droppings that may spread pathogens, water treatment is a simple mitigation strategy.
“Water has been a key piece to this, mainly because it’s where we see bird droppings hitting the most and the cows are drinking that,” Randy Tapia, Manager, Sales (Dairy Sanitation), Micro Technologies said on a recent Uplevel Dairy podcast.2
However, simply chlorinating the water isn’t enough to kill pathogens, he added. That’s where technology kicks in with a system that treats the water with chlorine dioxide, an EPA-approved technology that results in rapid killing action across a wide spectrum of organisms.
Birds are only one source of pathogens in drinking water. Pathogens can exist anywhere in the water system, beginning with the well or pond of origin, as well as in the pipes. Micro Technologies has worked with the poultry and swine industries for years on water treatment systems that keep pathogens at bay. Those experts have come to the diary side to help develop systems that mitigate disease transfer to dairy cows from water, Tapia said.
“We can provide the dosing technology automatically and we always provide reporting so you can look at the dosing on a daily basis,” according to Tapia. “And we have the monitoring piece to make sure it’s being dosed correctly every day.”
Cleaner water equals more productive cows
Beyond that, treating the water leads to greater productivity, according to Lloyd. “If we can reduce the bacteria in the water, it gives it a better taste profile. The cow will drink all the water she wants rather than just the water she needs,” he said.
“If you can get more water into a cow, then you can get additional feed into the cow, which in turn promotes health and makes more milk,” he added. Indeed, water is the most important nutrient and providing the best water quality promotes overall health.
Beyond the dairy’s water system, monitoring systems from Micro Technologies are a key tool in quickly seeing indications of any disease problems, Tapia said. For example, an uptick of cows on the health report is worthy of a second look to determine if it’s an early warning of an emerging disease outbreak.
Likewise with monitoring feed consumption. Looking at how many minutes of rumination gives you an indication whether or not some cows may be fighting subclinical or emerging diseases, Tapia added.
In addition, proper pen and bedding area maintenance can help mitigate disease spread by controlling the environment that is conducive to pathogens, according to NMPF. Consider truck tire washes, entryway foot plans, and visitor logs to also help with the spread of disease.
If you bring in new or returning animals, quarantine them for a minimum of 21 days and keep each group separated until they are ready to join the main herd, according to NMPF biosecurity recommendations.1
If possible, limit the use of your trailers to hauling only your own cattle and disinfect the inside with an EPA approved disinfectant. Work with your veterinarian on testing, vaccinations, and other health needs.
Early detection is critical to ensure cow health and productivity. Work with your employees so they understand and can recognize signs of infection and encourage them to report anything suspicious.
Pathogen diversion in the milking parlor
“Focus on what we can do in the parlor, because we know pathogens spread from cow to cow,” according to Lloyd. “Disinfect gloves and change gloves on the milkers regularly, use one towel per cow, and apply teat dips according to manufacturer recommendations,” he said. If you don’t have a separate facility to milk sick cows, milk them last and sanitize the system.
In short, Lloyd said, take your biosecurity plan off the shelf, blow the dust off and start reading. But it’s more than that, Scott McKenzie, Vice President-Technical Services at Enviro Tech, said. “Biosecurity works, but biosecurity isn’t just a process and products. It’s a culture.”
It starts at the top and works its way throughout the operation. NMPF encourages dairies to appoint a biosecurity manager to monitor the dairy, work with the herd veterinarian to set up an operation-specific biosecurity plan, and ensure biosecurity steps are in place.
And a biosecurity mindset often involves a new way of looking at things. Biosecurity is basically pathogen management, first preventing pathogens from coming onto a dairy, then controlling the spread should an infection occur. So, rather than focusing just on reacting to a disease outbreak, everyday biosecurity involves a prevention mindset, looking at ways to keep pathogens from coming onto the dairy to begin with.1
Strong plans are comprehensive plans
Biosecurity is more than just a good herd health plan. While vaccination and other herd health practices are critical, a biosecurity plan covers the entire operation.
NMPF’s FARM Biosecurity Task Force identified six areas of an overall biosecurity plan. The three most important for dairy farmers to focus on first as they get started with everyday biosecurity are animal movement and contact, animal health and disease monitoring, and personnel.3
Diseases that affect dairy cows will never be 100 percent preventable, Lloyd says. “But if we have protocols in place to try to prevent (disease), there’s a higher probability that it won’t be as detrimental to the herd if and when it does show up.”
An example, according to Lloyd, are entryway disinfectant pans. Are they shoved back in a corner under the fire extinguisher or are they placed strategically throughout the operation? Do employees walk through the pan or step around or over?
In addition to working with employees to implement the procedures spelled out in a biosecurity plan, provide the proper protective equipment to protect them from pathogens, NMPF stresses, and put biosecurity steps in place to keep pathogens from spreading on employees’ footwear and clothes.
That’s especially important for employees who work in the hospital around sick cattle. If you don’t have employees solely dedicated to caring for sick animals in the hospital pens, make sure that clothing and footwear worn around sick cattle aren’t worn around healthy animals. Sanitize or dispose of protective gear that covers eyes, nose, mouth, and hands and, as your mother often implored, wash your hands.
Does biosecurity work? Absolutely, McKenzie emphasized. With a nod to the poultry business, he said the companies that pretend to do it are the ones that get bitten. “The ones that have made it part of their culture can be surrounded by avian influenza and they won’t get it.”
