Focus Group Agenda

DAIRY 2014 FOCUS GROUP MEETING

Objective 1: Describe baseline dairy cattle health and management practices and trends in dairy farm health management

• Cow Comfort / Animal Welfare / Longevity

• Animal health / lameness

  • Proper nutrition, disease (Johne’s), reproduction failure, hoof disorders

• Breeding (cross bred, other genetics)

• Handling

  • Pain management, dehorning, castration, low stress

• Housing/ Environment

  • Flooring - cement surfaces, overcrowding, bedding, cleanliness

  • Facility/ stall size, dimensions, climate control, ventilation

• Mortality and culling rates

  • Early lactation- involuntary culling, high rates

  • Short life span (higher production)

Objective 2: Evaluate management factors that are related to optimal cow comfort and reduced removal rates.

• Biosecurity / Costs of Disease

  • Diseases

    • BVD, Johne’s, Leptospirosis, subclinical mastitis

  • Strategies

    • Identification of disease

    • Treatment/ No treatment –

      • Economics, cost controls

      • Cost of a biosecurity program

    • Risk assessment

    • Prevention- colostrum, vaccination

  • On farm

    • Biocontainment

    • Bioterrorism

Objective 3: Describe current biosecurity practices and determine producer motivation for implementing or not implementing proper biosecurity practices

• Udder Health (including pathogens)

  • Milking: routines, procedures, management

    • Effects on quality

    • Udder prep

    • Conformation

  • Pathogen Identification

    • Staph, mycoplasma, klebsiella, environmental, E. coli, contagious, chronic,

    • Mode of transmission

  • Prevention/ treatment

    • Mastitis

    • Dry cow

    • Culling

  • SCC (high vs. low)

    • Testing and culturing

Objective 4: Describe current milking procedures and determine the prevalence of common mastitis pathogens

• Nutrition

  • Rations

    • Forage quality

    • Grazing management

    • Nutrient (starch) availability

    • TMR

    • Transition cow diets, maintenance

  • Diseases

    • Acidosis

  • Mycotoxins

Objective 5: Determine the extent of mycotoxin contamination of feeds

• Calf health and management

  • Nutrition

    • Calf milk replacer, waste milk, pasteurization

    • When offered hay, grain and water

    • starter formulation

  • Housing

  • Diseases

    • Johne’s

    • Scours – E. coli

  • Prevention/ Management

    • Colostrum – passive transfer measures

    • Vaccination

    • Sanitation

Objective 6: Describe dairy calf health and evaluate nutrition and disease prevention pratices

• Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (Johne’s)

  • Prevalence

  • Diagnosis

    • Herd screening/testing

  • Prevention

Objective 7: Determine the U.S. herd-level infection prevalence

• Lameness / Hoof Health / Injury

  • Prevalence

  • Causes

  • Diseases

    • Hairy heel warts, foot rot, sole ulcers, laminitis, hypocalcemia

  • Housing

  • Prevention

    • Foot bath, other treatments

    • Proper hoof care

Objective 8: see objective 1

• Calf Diarrheal Diseases

  • Prevalence

  • Passive transfer

  • Pathogens

    • Coccidiosis, Cryptosporidium, E. coli

  • Treatment

  • Prevention/management

  • Mortality rate

Objective 9: Determine the percent of calves with failure of passive transfer and evaluate the association between herd level management and reported disease prevalence

• Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD)

  • Prevalence

    • Vaccinations

  • Identifying, monitoring PI

  • Prevention

    • Herd screening/testing

Objective 10: Determine the prevalence of infected operations and evaluate testing options for bulk milk

• Food Safety Pathogens (Salmonella, Campylobacter, E coli.)

  • Prevalence

  • Diagnosis

  • Management

    • Monitoring

  • Prevention

    • Vaccination

Objective 11: Determine the prevalence of specific food safety pathogens

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