 Herd Mentality Newsletter
Dealing With The Known
Dr. Bruce W. Hoffman, President, Animal Profiling International
I have been actively involved in the cattle industry for 23 years and I have come to realize that managing the unknown is difficult and stressful. As a veterinarian, I am trained to treat animals, yet my experience indicates that it is far superior to employ effective management techniques that preempt the need for treatment. Yet the combination of today's treatments and enhanced management techniques together is not getting the job done and health losses continue to increase.
 A recent research study of mortality in the cattle industry showed that the increase in total mortality rates rose from 10 deaths/1000 in 1994 to 17.5 deaths/1000 in 2003 – an increase of 75%. Driving this trend was an increase in mortality due to respiratory deathloss in feedlots (see table). Clearly, simply using today's treatment and cattle management techniques are not working because we continue to deal with too many unknowns about our herds.
To improve ROI through enhanced uses of treatment and herd management, API is providing tools that reveal the previously unknown. Its Animal Performance Index uses oxidative stress biomarkers as a predictor of Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD). By identifying at-risk animals before they get sick, ranchers can use this knowledge to address the one billion dollars in losses caused by BRD in the U.S. each year. API also identifies animals with Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) which costs the industry an estimated 2.1 billion a year. These costly diseases, can be reduced through using API tools to know which cattle are at risk.
The Animal Performance Index has been correlated with the incidence of BRD pulls, overall performance, and deathloss in the feedlot. The Index can reduce the unknowns when ranking animals according to risks. For example, the knowledge from the BVD panel in our Index decreases the commingling of BVD animals with the healthy herd. It's clear that the more you know, the better your treatment and management options become.
As the industry loses billions of dollars to diseases such as BRD and BVD, isn't it time we manage our herds smarter based on better knowledge, and eliminate the unknowns that are costing producers more each year?
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