On April 24, USDA confirmed the nation’s 4th case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) in an animal that was sampled for the disease at a rendering facility in central California. This animal was never presented for slaughter for human consumption, so at no time presented a risk to the food supply, or to human health in the United States. As the epidemiological investigation has progressed, USDA has continued to communicate findings in a timely and transparent manner....More

A Kansas State University veterinarian wants consumers to know that the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s discovery of a sick cow in California shows that the meat inspection system in the United States works....More

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) today confirmed that, as part of its ongoing monitoring of livestock in the United States, an atypical case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) has been detected in a dairy cow in central California. The animal was not presented for slaughter for human consumption, and never posed a risk to the food supply or human health....More

National Cattlemen’s Beef Association Cattle Health and Well-being Committee Chairman Tom Talbot issued the following statement regarding the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) confirmation of an atypical case of bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE) in a dairy cow in central California....More

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced today its intent to publish in the Federal Register on Fri., April 13, 2012, its final Guidance 209 and a draft proposed rule on veterinary feed directives. Tom Talbot, a California beef producer, large animal veterinarian and current chairman of the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association's (NCBA) Cattle Health and Well-Being Committee, issued the following statement....More

In the hierarchy of internal parasites in beef cattle, there’s little doubt that the nematodes (Ostertagia, Cooperia, etc.) are the headliners. But there’s an ambitious understudy – liver flukes – inching their way into the spotlight....More

Russia's food safety and sanitary watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor will ban cattle imports from all European Union (EU) countries as of March 20, following the spread of the highly virulent Schmallenberg and Bluetongue viruses....More

Imagine less than 1% mortality and about 10% morbidity for loads of put-together lightweight calves (325 lbs.) from the Southeast freighted to starter yards in Kansas. Imagine cutting average death loss and morbidity by 40-50% and significantly reducing the prevalence of major pathogens....More

Finding dead cattle from time to time isn't exactly uncommon. Finding a bunch of them all at once is another heartbreaking matter. An Arizona rancher...More

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health (MBAH – www.bah.state.mn.us) says a farmed elk, a seven-year-old female, from an Olmsted County herd tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD)....More

Biosecurity, biocontainment, biological risk management. To the beef producer, these new buzzwords essentially mean the same thing addressing the possibility...More