AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by AABP Past President Dr. Pat Gorden, a professor of dairy production medicine and clinical pharmacology at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine.

 We review the meaning of violative drug residues and the most common medications used in cattle that have historically been associated with violative drug residues. Gorden also reviews both how animals are selected for testing and how withdrawal intervals are determined by drug sponsors when going through the drug approval process. Of particular importance is the effect of disease on the clearance of drugs from the animal since the residue studies are performed on healthy animals for FDA submission.

 Gorden reviews basic pharmacologic mechanisms for drugs and how disease state may impact drug clearance. He also reviews a study he performed that looked at severe clinical mastitis cows and the impact on the pharmacokinetics of ceftiofur in these animals. Veterinarians should utilize FARAD for withdrawal determinations and consider disease state on drug clearance. 

 Finally, Gorden offers suggestions for practicing veterinarians to review with farm managers and employees, including observations in the hospital pen or when treatments are administered. Ensuring correct protocol compliance, applying correct therapy, estimating the correct weight, extending the withdrawal interval on sick animals, ensuring the correct dose, route and volume of injection, and fully mixing suspensions prior to filling the syringe are all important items to check. Veterinarians are tasked with ensuring appropriate oversight on drug use on farms and regularly reviewing these steps is an important aspect of this stewardship principle as well as creating billable hours that are valued by the client.

P.J. Gorden, M.D. Kleinhenz, L.W. Wulf, B. KuKanich, C.J. Lee, C. Wang, J.F. Coetzee, Altered plasma pharmacokinetics of ceftiofur hydrochloride in cows affected with severe clinical mastitis, J Dairy Sci. Volume 99, Issue 1, 2016, Pages 505-514, https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2015-10239.

Gorden PJ, Ydstie JA, Kleinhenz MD, et al. Comparative plasma and interstitial fluid pharmacokinetics and tissue residues of ceftiofur crystalline-free acid in cattle with induced coliform mastitis. J Vet Pharmacol Therap. 2018; 41: 848–860. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvp.12688.

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Dr. Matt Miesner, Clinical Professor in the Livestock Services Section at Kansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine. Safe restraint of cattle is important for human and animal safety but is also an important animal welfare consideration.  

Restraint is not only about chemical immobilization and the veterinarian should also consider how to handle the patient in a low-stress manner utilizing available facilities, but also other methods of physical restraint. Miesner provides information about the importance of understanding what each drug provides in terms of sedation, analgesia and anesthesia and the differences in each term. In addition, individual patient circumstances should be considered by the veterinarian before administering drugs.  

Miesner walks through the most common drugs used in bovine and mixed animal practice that the veterinarian can consider. This includes some common dosages and advantages and disadvantages of each drug, potential side effects and common uses. We also discuss an update on xylazine access and potential legislation. Gingrich suggests that veterinarians support the AVMA efforts in ensuring we can still use xylazine in bovine practice by donating to the AVMA PAC.  Veterinarians are advised to develop scientifically validated withdrawal intervals when using these drugs by contacting FARAD. 

Miesner also advises us on uses of epidurals and IV regional anesthesia as other practical methods of analgesia and immobilization. We close by discussing the importance of post-procedural pain control to ensure we are providing the best care to our patients and return them to health and productivity.  

Links:

Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank - http://www.farad.org/ 

Bovine Field Restraint: Physical and Chemical Techniques for Balanced Restraint, Proceedings of the 2010 AABP Annual Conference, Matt Miesner, https://doi.org/10.21423/aabppro20104075 

Injectable Anesthesia for Cattle Field Procedures, Proceedings of the 2023 AABP Recent Graduate Conference, Andrea Lear, https://doi.org/10.21423/aabppro20238737 

Donate to the AVMA PAC to support our efforts in maintaining access to xylazine by visiting this link.  

AABP Resource Approaching Pain in Cattle https://aabp.org/committees/view_pdf.asp?page=Pain_Brochure_8-15.pdf

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Dr. Nigel Cook from the University of Wisconsin. Cook is a past-president of AABP, current member of the AABP Lameness Committee, and a life-long advocate for improving welfare of cows specifically focusing on lameness and facility design for cow comfort.  

Lameness is a significant welfare concern on dairy farms and Cook states that up to 22% of cows in the U.S. dairy herd walk with a noticeable limp. It is also often under-reported on dairy farms with producers underestimating the prevalence of lameness on their farms and missing cows that are mildly lame. This is important because lameness changes the structure of the hoof and can increase the risk of further lameness incidents in the future.  

Lying time is a major factor in preventing lameness, improving cow comfort and returning lame cows to soundness. Cook notes that lying time is impacted by stall surface, providing the opportunity to rest by keeping the time out of pen less than 3.5 hours, minimizing overstocking and mitigating heat stress. Cook provides some tips for maximizing the stall surface comfort, with deep bedding that stays in the stall critical to stall comfort. He also discusses stall dimensions, but mentions that stall surface remains the most critical factor in comfort of the bed. Cook notes that deep bedded sand results in a 40% reduction in lameness.  

Veterinarians should be involved in lameness prevention and improving cow comfort on their client’s farms. Performing a lameness audit and reviewing hoof trim records can provide insights into the impact lameness is having on the herd. Monitoring cow behavior and lying time by utilizing time lapse cameras can provide meaningful information for the veterinarian and producer. Cook mentions the resources available on the Dairyland Initiative website which includes housing modules for all classes of cattle and lameness modules. He also mentions that they perform consults for producers and veterinarians as well as publish a podcast for veterinarians to learn about these resources during their windshield time. 

If you are an AABP member interested in lameness in beef or dairy cattle, consider volunteering to serve on the AABP Lameness Committee. You can find resources from the committee on this page. Go to the committee landing page for more information or to email the committee to join.  

Links:
The Dairyland Initiative
Dairyland Initiative Podcast and other resources can be found here.

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Dr. Justine Britten, a PhD animal scientist working at Udder Health Systems Inc. This episode is brought to you by the AABP Milk Quality and Udder Health Committee. AABP members with an interest in milk quality are invited to volunteer to serve on the committee. Find out more information about the committee by visiting this page.   

Staph aureus is a contagious mastitis pathogen and Britten states that every dairy is affected to some degree by Staph aureus with a huge range in severity and prevalence between herds. Veterinarians play a key role in developing monitoring and prevention programs. Culturing remains a key point in identifying animals that are affected with Staph aureus so they can be evaluated for culling, segregation or treatment. Cultures should focus not only on clinical animals because Staph aureus is commonly a subclinical infection. It is estimated that 2-15% of heifers will freshen with the infection and their somatic cell count may be low for some time before it begins to climb. Treatment should be reserved for heifers and it is critical to identify it early in the course of infection to increase chance of treatment success. 

Britten states that in most circumstances, there is no need to do sensitivity testing on milk cultures unless there is an outbreak situation with apparent treatment failures. Bulk tank cultures are important and a minimum for routine herd mastitis monitoring. The sensitivity of bulk tank cultures is low but serial positive silos from a dairy indicate a higher prevalence of the infection up to 5-10% of the cows.  

We also discuss that in outbreak situations it is important to evaluate why cows are getting infected and remember that cows typically get infected in the parlor and focus efforts there. This includes evaluating teat condition, parlor procedures and equipment function. Aggressive culturing programs, segregation and culling are important to minimize risk.  

Britten provides these three take-home points for veterinarians:

Take-home point #1 – Not all Staph aureus colonies exhibit beta-hemolysis, therefore, it is important that all Staph colonies undergo coagulase testing to identify Staph aureus.

Take-home point #2 – Monthly bulk tank cultures are a bare minimum monitoring program for dairy farms.

Take-home point #3 – Somatic cell count is a lagging indicator and cultures will detect infections earlier.

Mastitis is the number one disease of dairy cattle and should be involved in milk quality and mastitis prevention programs. The Milk Quality and Udder Health Committee has developed guidelines for milk quality service providers. Find this document under the Committee Resources page, click on the Milk Quality and Udder Health page, then the Committee Resources tab to find these documents. 

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich provides and end-of-year update and a look forward to what AABP will have for its members in 2025. Gingrich begins by providing an update on the current HPAI outbreak affecting dairy cattle and reminding members of the resources available to them on the H5N1 page located here. The USDA dashboard of affected cases, funding opportunities, federal orders, biosecurity documents, and webinar recordings are available to AABP members. He encourages all veterinarians to familiarize themselves with the disease and the surveillance testing programs that have been implemented. AABP will also have a webinar to share the results of the survey and serologic testing of 100 attendees at the 2024 AABP Annual Conference from Columbus, Ohio. Find all AABP webinars under the Continuing Education menu of the AABP website at this link. All AABP webinars are recorded. Webinars approved for CE are on the online CE portal under the Continuing Education menu and webinars related to HPAI are on the H5N1 page of the AABP website.

December 27 is the deadline for casting your vote for the 2025 AABP Vice President election. Candidates are Dr. Jen Roberts and Dr. Elizabeth Quesnell Kohtz. Find the ballot and information about each candidate on this page. The AABP Nominations Committee is also accepting applications to be considered for the 2026 Vice President election. Self nominations are accepted and Gingrich suggests that members can contact anyone to encourage them to submit their name for consideration. Interested AABP members should send a letter of interest and CV/resume to [email protected] by January 31.  

The AABP Foundation also announces a call for research grant proposals by December 27 at 5 pm eastern. Funding is available for both beef and dairy research projects associated with cattle health, welfare and production. Up to $25,000 in financial support will be provided for up to two grants in 2025. For more information or to submit your proposal, visit this page.  

AABP also reminds listeners that applications to attend the USDA grant-funded Building Excellence in Rural Veterinary Practice workshops closes on December 20 at 5 pm Eastern. Attendance is free for those who qualify for the grant, and additional seats are available for purchase by AABP members by emailing [email protected]. Visit this link for more information. 

The 8th Recent Graduate Conference will be held in Norman, Oklahoma February 13-15, 2025m including preconference seminars. Registration closes January 31 and the hotel block will close on January 23. Find out more information and register here.  

If you are an AABP member who needs your CE certificate, membership dues receipt or your donation receipts, simply hover over your name after logging in to the AABP website to access these documents. During this season of giving, we encourage you to consider the AABP Foundation or one of its scholarship funds through this link.

Reminder to all members that in 2025, AABP will change its dues year to match the calendar year and give members the option of a 6-month or 18-month renewal to transition to the calendar year dues cycle. The AABP board has devoted significant resources to improving access to continuing education opportunities including webinars, online CE, publications and seminars held outside the annual conference. We welcome everyone to join AABP and renew your dues to support our advocacy of helping cattle veterinarians.  

Happy holidays and best wishes to each of you in the new year. 

AABP Membership Committee chair Dr. Dan Cummings is the guest host for this episode of Have You Herd? on One Health. Guests for this podcast include AABP member Dr. John Groves, an exclusive beef cattle veterinarian in central Missouri, and Dr. Greg Gray, a human physician and Professor in Infectious Disease Epidemiology at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Texas. Read Dr. Gray’s profile at this page.  

Our guests define what One Health means to them and how it applies to a practicing veterinarian as well as educating physicians on the meaning of One Health. There are sometimes challenges from clients on exploring One Health, and our guests dive into its implications with the current HPAI disease outbreak in dairy cattle and poultry. Gray discusses his work with zoonotic diseases and working with coronaviruses and influenza viruses throughout his career. Groves and Cummings discuss a collaborative surveillance project that will be presented as an abstract at the upcoming Conference of Research Workers in Animal Diseases (CWRAD) in Chicago, Ill., January 18-21, 2025. Find information about this conference at this link. 

One Health remains an important topic for both veterinarians and physicians. Working collaboratively to protect human and animal health by sharing knowledge is important for both communities. 

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Dr. Sara Linneen, a PhD ruminant nutritionist on the beef cattle technical consultant team at Elanco Animal Health. The overarching theme for this episode is “nutrition is everything”, and Linneen walks us through how nutrition impacts all aspects of cow-calf production.  

We discuss some of the challenges and opportunities for wintering beef cows and determining how to supplement cows over the winter. Linneen also discusses how drought affects forage quality and the impacts that has not only on dry matter intake, but intake of energy and protein which are critical nutrients for the cow and gestating fetus. The veterinarian is often the technical resource for the cow-calf ranch, and over 30% of the time, a call from a producer to the veterinarian is related to the nutrition program. Veterinarians have an opportunity to impact cow health, productivity, calf health and farm economics by becoming involved in the nutrition program. 

Linneen points out that body condition score at calving is the greatest predictor of reproductive success in the next year. It is also important to remember that we are feeding the cow, the gestating calf and the rumen micro-organisms with our nutrition program. Fetal programming, weaning weights, lactation performance and reproductive performance are influenced by how we feed cows over the winter and manage pastures in the spring and summer.  

Finally, Linneen offers some suggestions for improving forage efficiency in the cow by feeding monensin. Many cow-calf producers overlook this opportunity to improve forage efficiency which will decrease the amount of hay needing to be fed to cows over the winter which is a net economic return to the farm. 

Gingrich reminds listeners of the opportunity to learn beef cow nutrition from AABP.  We will host an eight-hour beef cow nutrition seminar at the 8th Recent Graduate Conference in Norman, Okla. On February 13. Find out information here. We will also have a beef cow nutrition seminar at the 58th AABP Conference in Omaha, Neb.; conference registration will open in May. 

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by AABP members Dr. Pat Gorden and Dr. Keith Poulsen to provide a situational update on the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza H5N1 disease outbreak in dairy cattle.  

This podcast is sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim 3600 coverage. Every lactation cycle, cows are up against the threat of mastitis. Which really means you’re up against it, too. 

Thankfully, Boehringer Ingelheim has you covered with 360° coverage solutions. From prevention to treatment options designed for judicious antibiotic use, the 360° coverage mastitis portfolio has the products you need to defend udders at every angle. What’s in your cattle health toolkit? For more information, visit this link. 

We discuss a wide range of topics, including how this virus jumped from birds to cows and has since spread to over 500 dairy farms in the U.S. via cow-to-cow transmission and fomite spread from dairy-to-dairy and dairy to poultry. Our guests discuss the importance of biosecurity, national surveillance and vaccination to eliminate this virus from the U.S. dairy herd. We discuss diagnostic surveillance and the importance of getting all farms to participate in surveillance to identify positive herds and prevent further transmission. The bulk tank PCR test will be positive two weeks before the herd shows clinical signs, providing an opportunity for dairy farmers and veterinarian prepare as well as implement biosecurity practices to protect other premises in their area. 

Our guests also discuss the work of AABP, in collaboration with other stakeholder groups, to provide advocacy, guidance and resources to our members. Organized veterinary medicine plays a critical role in a disease outbreak and we encourage all cattle veterinarians to join AABP to help us in our efforts.

Links:

Join AABP or pay dues at this link. 

AABP H5N1 resources page.

USDA confirmed cases dashboard page.  

It is time to vote for your 2025 AABP Vice President leader. AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by the candidates for a question-and-answer period so members can get to know their candidates and cast their vote. Candidates for the 2025 ballot are Dr. Jen Roberts and Dr. Elizabeth Quesnell Kohtz. 

AABP provides several opportunities to get to know your candidates during the election period. This includes an introductory speech at the AABP Annual Conference, a question-and-answer document in the November newsletter, and a podcast with questions for each candidate.  

The candidate with the most votes will be seated at the 2025 AABP Annual Conference in Omaha, Neb. They will then ascend through the four offices of the Executive Committee where they will plan preconference seminars for 2026, the annual conference for 2027, serve as president in 2028 and then past president for 2029. This office is the only nationally elected seat for the organization.  

Current AABP veterinarian members are encouraged to cast their vote by visiting the ballot page found here. The ballot page includes candidate biographies, links to the video presentation from the 2024 Columbus Annual Conference, and the candidate interviews published in the November newsletter. 

The ballot will close on December 27, 2024 at 5 pm Eastern time. 

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by the program committee for the upcoming 8th AABP Recent Graduate Conference. The program committee includes Dr. Cody Sacquitne, committee chair and AABP Emerging Leader, Dr. Colleen Potter, dairy chair, Dr. Patrick Schmitz, cow-calf chair, and Dr. Annika Johnson, feedlot chair. The conference will be held February 14-15, 2025 at the Embassy Suites in Norman, Oklahoma. There will also be pre-conference seminars on February 13 which offer additional CE opportunities.

The conference is open to AABP members who graduated between 2017-2024. All AABP members will have access to the recordings from the conference presentations by going to the Continuing Education menu of the AABP website and click on Online CE (recorded sessions). This is a free member benefit and allows you to access virtual CE that is RACE approved for no charge! AABP also welcomes all registered/credentialed veterinary technicians of any graduation year to attend the recent graduate conference as well. Make sure your dues are paid before registering and note it can take up to three business days to process dues payments. Go here to pay your dues so that you can register for the conference. 

The theme of the conference is “Be the Beginning” with the intent to empower recent graduates to be the source of change and opportunity in their practices. The conference keynote presentation will be delivered by Dr. Michelle Schack and is titled “Enhancing Sustainability through Animal and Human Well-Being”. General sessions will follow that focus on health – physical health, financial health, and emotional and mental health. The conference will also offer sessions on mixed animal, clinical skills, practice management, beef, dairy, and practice tips from the program committee. 

Registration is limited so we encourage members to register now. View the conference schedule on this page. Register for the conference at this link. Make sure you are logged in to the website before registering! All attendees are required to book reservations at this link to attend the conference. Make sure to come a day early for the great preconference seminars that are offered for additional hands-on CE. Find seminar descriptions here.