DCPAH

Today Tara and I met Dr. Wendy Osman at DCPAH to euthanize 11 cows from the most recently discovered infected herd. 7 calves that came from these cows also had to be euthanized and posted by the doctors and residents at the lab.

So, needless to say, the day didn't start out on a "happy" note. Tara and I both experienced our first euthanasia as far as participating in the injections. We used a solution called Fatal Plus that quickly suppresses the respiratory system and stops the heart beat. The solution worked extremely quick and the cows were not in any pain what so ever. The atmosphere was actually rather calm.

Once the cows were put down outside of the building, they were sent into the lab where many residents waited with Dr. Agnew and Dr. Patterson. We watched the mesenteric lymph nodes, tracheobronchial, ileocecal junction lymph node, and ileum (which I have never heard of) lymph nodes be collected from the body, while a separate station examined the head for retropharyngeals, mandibulars, and parotids.

It was quite the experience, but lets just say I have ruled out wanting to be a pathologist as a veterinarian. Working with dead specimens isn't exactly..... fun. BUT it was a great learning experience and a much better way to study anatomy (since everything isn't yellow from being drenched in formalin).

Dicing up selected lymph nodes for formalin and borate solutions for post examination processes.

Wildlife Risk Verified

Thursday, June 30th, 2011
Early in the morning we met Greg, a Wildlife Services employee that is involved with Wildlife Risk mitigating farms. He first showed us a similar process that Emily completes before stepping out onto anyone's property. He uses the Google Maps to assess land, approxiamate deer cover, natural wetland, fresh water sources, etc. He explained that Wildlife Services doesn't exist unless they get proper funding. So, if funding is not available, neither is work for anyone in the company. However, they do deal with natural habitat and preserve our native species. They implement plans to preserve endangered species' habitat as well as killing off their over-populated predators. In bovine TB, their role is the middle ground between what MDARD can do versus what DNR will do. So to alleviate the tuberculosis issue in the northern Michigan livestock, they assist with the Wildlife Risk Mitigation program and attempt to verify farms.

To show us what type of changes can be made, we drove to Alpena (~90 min) and checked out a property that had already been assessed to see what they do after they have already gone through the Risk*A*Syst (which is what we did with Emily). This property, inparticular, did not have many cattle, but he did have a natural creek run through his pasture land that emerged from the woods out back where there was significant deer cover. Fortunately, with such a small herd, he already had a hoop house for his hay and all other silage was stored inside the barns, so feed was not a serious issue. As we walked back toward the woods, we came up to a low area that was just outside of the trees. The water of crick came from that spot, but the water there was at a stand still. This is an unacceptable water source for both cattle and deer to share because of the respiratory secretions that can persist in an unmoving area. The area was also slightly shaded, which is a safe haven for the bacteria. UV light is the murderer of the microbe, so areas that are moving and in sunlight are safer. Regardless of being a "safe spot," however, it would be ideal if the wildlife and cows could not drink from the same areas because then they wouldn not come into physical contact either, where secretions may be directly swapped, although, much more unlikely. Therefore, problematic areas like the stand-still cattail marsh had to be fenced off by the owner, whom, in this case, was very compliant.

Greg was great in explaining everything he assesses. However, he does admit, sometimes there's not a clear cut reasoning to tell the owner why you are or aren't doing certain things. These are all preventative measures, so maybe that gate, in long term, does nothing, but in an area infested with TB within the wildlife, it's one of the only precautions we can take for our cattle to sustain our livestock industry. Producers  that have to make significant changes, however, beg to differ and argue that we will put them out of business by forcing them to spend money before their cattle with ever all die of TB.

The Wildlife Risk program is, in most instances, frowned upon by producers. Some do understand the rationale among the program, but others see it as a waste of time and that TB will be here forever, regardless. It is hard for me sometimes to explain to my callers the scientific background of disease prevention when they are concerned for their way of life and their sole source of income. It can be an emotionally draining topic when you hit people with strong feelings about it. However, without regulation, the disease would propagate uncontrollably and destroy Michigan's agricultural community.

Northern Michigan Livestock Market

Wednesday, June 29th, 2011
Around noon we headed over to NML Market in Gaylord, MI to meet with Dr. Bob Robinson and Sara (a vet tech that worked in the office to check the animals in). First we sat with Sara and two others to observe how all the animals were checked in. Dwayne, a sweet, sweet old man, sat at the window while sellers approached him and told them what they were selling for the day. By hand, Dwayne would record each individual animal in a receipt booklet and assign them back tag numbers that are followed as the animals are moved through the market. After he is finished, he gives the producer a receipt and hands off the written information to his partner (whom I have forgotten the name of). She writes the information down again in a separate record keeping notepad as a second check-in for the animals. Once she is through recording, she passes the recipts over to Sara who works on the computer and checks the animals in officially. Her system is updated as the vets out in the barn are scanning the RFIDs of the animals. When they update their PDA, the information is sent to her computer so she can have every back tag associated with the appropraite RFID. Sara also checks to see if the premise the animals are arriving from have been Wildlife Risk Verified (WRV). Again, this is important to sellers at markets because they will receive more money for each animals if their property is WRV than if they're not. I asked Dr. Robinson how they let buyers know if they're bidding on an animal that has not been WRV and he said they announce it before that round begins.

Once we watched the check-in process for a while, we jumped out with Dr. Robinson in the pens to scan some animals in, ear tag if necessary, and back tag each animal. Their set up was pretty efficient with a cemented alley for us to tend to two separate, single-file walkways. As cattle came off the truck, workers file them into the alleys and packed them in for us to record. From there, they were released into the market and penned according to premise origin.

After a while of helping check in, we walked into the auction with Dr. Robinson so he could help us understand how the process worked. We had watched a few on our own earlier this summer in the smaller saleyards, but always just observed and it made it difficult to figure out how the process worked. As each animal comes out, they are "exercised" (for the lack of a better term) to show the viewers the animal's agility and health as it walks around the showcase pen. The auctioneer informs bidders of the age and weight of the animal and then there's usually a helper with the auctioneer to record all the information into a computer to record who bought which animal and for how much. Cattle are sold by the hundred weight. Usually, when 6 month, or so, calves are sold they go for about $70-80/cw. The bidding goes rather quickly and as the animals are bought, they are released from the showcase pen and sorted out back according to buyer. That day, there were many calves in the barn, as well as goats and hogs, which are sold before cattle, so we did not wait around for heifers and steers to be sold.

As we left, we were both complimented on how well we kept things moving in the barn and the workers were very appreciative of what we had done for them. Really, this was the first time all summer I felt really appreciated for the work we were there to do. NOT that Dr. Schwarck or any of them were ungrateful, but producers are always the ones that assume you can't do their job. So, we left the day with confidence, which was a really positive experience for me. Also, while we were taking off our boots, old Dwayne drove up to our car and gave us Northern Michigan Livestock hats that we had previously mentioned we liked. He was a sweet man and was also very appreciative of our help for the day. Ahhhh :O) Good day!

As a toast to our eventful day, Tara and I got changed and went to a state park in the Gaylord area. We hiked some nature trails, which was very relaxing. The trial was near an elk reserve so we had a chance to stop there and get a closer look at the elk as well. Definitely all worth our trip!

Risk*A*Syst

Tuesday, June 28, 2011
Tuesday was fairly laid back. Tara and I got up to go for a run/walk and didn't have to be over to Alpena, Michigan until 2PM. There, we met with USDA's employee, Emily, who assesses new farms via the Risk*a*Syst program to become Wildlife Risk Mitigated. She first walked us through the steps she takes before arriving at the property.

She uses an ArcView program that helps her assess the producer's property from Google Earth. This helps her to get a grasp on what she can expect when she goes out to the farm. She also has the ability to look at soil types, habitat types, TB-affected farms within a certain mile radius from the farm, natural water sources, elevation, and various other details that can help her better assess the risk of a particular place. From the look of the pictures, the place we were going to visit altered the use of their land slightly from year to year. Sometimes a field looked like a torn-up pasture from the map and other years it looked like it had crop rows throughout. She also saw a pond on the map that she wasn't too concerned about because it was far enough away from the woodland junction, that deer didn't pose a huge threat. However, this particular property was in TB haven with, I think it was 5, affected farms within a 10-mile radius and additional ones closely surrounding.

After studying the map, we drove out to the property to talk to the owners. She walks through questions in the Risk*A*Syst booklet to ask them about water sources, food sources, feed storage, where cattle are fed, and what land the animals have access to. Based on how she scores them and what her totals come out to be, they will be in a "safe" category, or high risk. The typical scoring is from 1-3, with 1 needing the most work on the farm. After running through the booklet, we walked through the property with Emily and the owners to look at their pasture and check if there was at least a wire fence between the pasture and woods. The owner had all of his haylage and silage stored inside, so he practiced ideal food storage, but he was very honest that he has deer on his property all the time and there's nothing he can do about it...

By the end of the assessment and explaining some of the perks to becoming a Wildlife Risk Verified farm, Emily explained that almost everything looked good for them. Deer would always be a problem until every farmer, unrealistically, can build 10 foot fences along their entire property. An advantage to becoming verified is that the producers do not have to get movement certificates before taking their cattle to the market, which you would have to do if you chose NOT to be WRV. Now too, in NE Michigan, buyers in the Northern Michigan Livestock market are only looking to buy cattle that are from WRM farms. They feel safer about buying the animals because they know they have been tested as well as protected the best way they possibly can on their property of origin. Therefore, ideally, you would want to be WRV, but there are many different perspectives on this topic depending on the amount of change farmers have to allocate on their farms.

A week spent in Beautiful, Northern Michigan

Monday, June 27, 2011
Tara and I headed up to Atlanta, Michigan (the Elk capital of the WORLD/Michigan, haha) to visit the Michigan Department of Agriculture regional office that they have set up over there solely for bovine TB purposes. When we arrived, Steve Maniaci gave us a tour of the small facility. The building consisted of about 8 offices, with 2 receptionists, Beth and Doris. They also have select offices for the veterinarians and for their main scheduler, whom I have absent-mindedly forgot the name of. She was responsible for scheduling all tests for each producer's anniversary date. The program she worked with was pretty extensive and required a lot of attentative work so that veterinarians, producers, and the offices were all on the same page when it came to the testing date.

The facility also had a specialized drive-thru garage that could seal shut. The garage is used to wash all dirty equipment used at farms and it contained high-pressure water hoses with a strong disinfectant to wash it all down. There are guidelines for how to wash the equipment as well. Each gate must come off the trailor to be washed individually. The drainage systems  take the excess liquid and drain it through a fine filter to make sure the water is clear of disinfectant before reaching the water table. Then, the toxic compounds that reside are dumped elswhere, and a biosecurity truck comes to empty it 1-2x each month. If the equipment cannot be washed immediately upon return, they had to be placed out in the back directed N/S to indicate they were still dirty. If the equipment was oriented E/W and was around the perimeter, this meant the equipment was clean and ready for use.

There was also a tiny lab area for separating serum from blood draws and other small-scale lab work. The are had a small hood and a table, but was convenient for some of the veterinarians working with blood tubes.

After our tour, we worked with Beth, Doris, and Steve to show them discrepancies we found between the USAHerds database (used for all Michigan premises with livestock) and their list of farms that have been Whole Herd Tested. For instance, some of the properties we found on the WHT list were not listed in USAHerds at all, so they may have been listed under another name, county, etc. Once we walked through some of the issues at hand, Tara and I went through the list and made the noteable changes. The process was fairly quick and then we were out on our own. We went to check in at the Wind-Sans motel of Atlanta. The place was tiny and fairly run-down, but it was fine for the night. To avoid sitting around, Tara and I went to Clearlake State Park to find some nature trails. It was really an enjoyable way to spend our afternoon.

Fre(e)mont Not Free of Suspects

Today we followed up on the comparative cervical injections that Dr. Schwarck and Dr. Baer performed Monday on a 1500 head dairy that is trying to move down to Indiana. We were checking the 30 suspects and their double injections on the neck. The front-most injection is the Avian tuberculin strain and the second is the Bovine strain. The antigens of these 2 can cross-react with the animal's antibodies during the caudal fold injection, so the comparative cervical tries to use more isolated strains that are void of many of the cross-reacting antigens. The skin thickness is measured the day of injection (Mon) and the day of reading (today). The differences in the thicknesses are compared and the difference determines if the animal is negative, a suspect, or a reactor.

By protocol, each animal that was injected by the veterinarian, MUST be read by the same doctor. Therefore, Dr. Schwarck could not assess Dr. Baer's cows, and vice versa. Both docs found 1 suspect in each of their animals. This correlates with a similar thickness between the avian and bovine reactions. Ideally, we want avian to be larger because then the antigens are not reacting with bovine antibodies, and therefore, the animal is assumed to be bovine TB free. However, 2 were not and were in the suspect zones. These correlated with approximate widths of 13-13.5 mm for avian and nearly the same for the bovine strain.

The suspect animals were taken immediately from the farm and off to the lab for culture, histopath, and will be slaughtered to avoid additional contamination and because they would not be allowed across state lines anyway. If Indiana's Board of Animal officials accepts the quick results from the histopath, which would be back by about Wednesday, then the owner can move his animals without culture results, which can take up to 6 months (sheeesh!) to get back.

1399 was labeled as suspect. She was tagged with a pink ear tag and left the farm the day of reading.

Today was fun and I'm glad I got to experience what a secondary test is like instead of only the initial whole herd testing. I'm sad to say, however, that 2 of those beautiful dairy girls will have to be "put down." (How's that for a nice cow euphemism for ya?)

This made for a quick week! Tomorrow is already Friday! Holy COW! I went into the school today to see if Dr. Ames or Dr. Curry were around doing anything fun, but there wasn't much life in the teaching hospital and nothing too exciting on the calendar. Bummer....but, I'm enjoying my early afternoon off!

Antelopes, Elk, Deer, Pigs, Cows and more!

The last 2 days have been pretty exciting. Dr. Susan Baer went out with Tara and the crew on Monday to do a secondary comparative cervical test on 30 cows that were recorded as suspect from the WHT. She knew we were a little slow in the office, so she asked Tara and I to ride with her to western MI to check some facilities for feral swine. Her goal for the day was to just check the premises to see if there were even pigs there, what their living conditions were like, and to talk to the owners if need be. We stopped at 4 locations, 3 of which didn't have pigs anymore, and 1 of those 3 that never once owned swine before.

The first stop was at a place in Clarksville, MI where the owner is attempting to turn his property into a public exotic zoo. He had multiple antelope species from Africa, India, peacocks, alligators, zebras, camels, monkeys, deer, and more! He was very willing to show us his property, but there were no sign of pigs. He did have 2 wart hogs, but they were apparently not considered "feral swine." One of his workers was also interested in buying tigers and lions for his own farm, and Dr. Baer informed him that it was illegal in the state unless they were grandfathered in. We heard a lot about the state's Large Carnivore Act that prohibits them from being brought into the state lines.

Next was a place near Lowell, MI that didn't end up having pigs anymore either. Nothing exciting there...just a man that was angry to be dealing with government folks like us! Then, we headed over to a farm that I'm drawing a blank on the location..... duh....but they insisted they never had pigs on their property, ever! However, they did have deer all over their property and they were very eager and excited to show strange government employees, like ourselves, their property. It was evident that they were very proud of their property and home. While Dr. Baer had a word with the husband, the wife pulled Tara and I around the back of the barn to show us their deer. The first pen had a doe, by the name of CoCo, and the purest white, 2 year old buck you'd ever seen by the name of Blanzy. He was GORGEOUS. The buck was very people-oriented and had no fear to approach the gate and welcome us with warm, sloppy kisses. The doe was a bit hesitant and stayed back. Soon after, the owner went into the little hut they had within the 10 foot fences to have the fawn come out. The buck instantly got terriorial, but wasn't too aggressive with the owner. The fawn ran out and lacked some coordination, but was absolutely adorable. She ran straight back to her mama, so it was difficult to get a picture.

Meet Blanzy

Blanzy, Coco, and her fawn (tough to see, sorry...camera stinks!)

Anyway, in the back of their property, they had acres of woods fenced in and said they had ~30 deer within that pen. Coco, the mother, was found in that pen originally, neglected by her mother, and the owners were sure she wouldn't make it. But, they took her to the solitary pen, bottle fed her, fed her sand, and she's as healthy as ever. Both Coco and Blanzy were bottle raised and are very familiar with the presence of people. It was a wonderful experience for me. I had never seen any captive deer premises before, so it was very eye opening to see the work people put forth to keep cervid species on their property. A pretty cool experience for crawling onto their property on accident, looking for feral swine, ha! However, they have dealt with us before for their deer to be tagged and TB tested.

Lastly, we had an appointment in Dorr, MI, south of GR, with an old wild boar farm. We showed up and the place had junk all over, but the owner was the nicest man to all of us women. We pulled up and he was almost anxious to show us his wild pigs (some of which were bred with Russian boards, which is evident by the striping) and his deer. The pigs were fine, but the owner is looking to get rid of all his swine and cervids. He had a terrible encounter with the DNR officials and wants nothing to do with the enforcements they are trying to place on him. It was interesting to listen to his point of view and it's a shame to see producers having to sell their passions because of rules and regulations...

ANYWAY (sorry, I get side tracked in the "emotional ties" to these events...after all, I was a "Francis" in the class teamwork workshop!), after seeing his pigs, we hopped in the bed of his pick up and headed out back to see the deer. We took buckets of corn to persuade the deer to come feed while we watched them from only 100 feet away. The deer were beautiful, but completely aware that there were strangers present. We sat quietly and observed as mosquitos sucked all the RBCs they could ;o) He had two Sika deer that are rarely seen, a female elk, and the rest white-tails. One doe came up later in the feeding session with twin fawns. They never made it too close, with the exception of one of the fawns (see the picture). Dare devil fawn! haha

Mmmm....food!

Fat Sika deer

Sweet fawn looking for the good food

After seeing the sights there and visiting with the friendly farmer, we took off and called it a day. We arrived back in Lansing around 9:30, only to go home, get to bed, and meet in the car pool lot on I-96 at 5:45 AM the next morning (today).