Why it's time to checs your herd and tackle disease

摘要

In focusing on the big things, we often overlook the details we can control but don't take the opportunity to tackle. Endemic disease in cattle is one of these areas for which we have the procedures, the tools and the means to deal with, but all too often we fail to act. Controlling diseases can be a slog, but can also deliver big results. For example, there's a collection of diseases that we all know are out there and probably affect most of our herds at some point to a greater or lesser extent. By controlling them we avoid compromising the animal's immune system so we save money firefighting problems - and we gain through improved lifetime performance. This also helps to reduce antibiotic usage, which is critical right now. The importance of this issue and -to some extent my frustration at our lack of action on it - are the reasons I applied to become Chair of CHeCS last year, and was appointed in January this year.