Farms that purchase replacement breeding cattle are at increased risk of introducing many economically important diseases. The objectives of this analysis were to determine whether the total number of replacement breeding cattle purchased by individual farms could be reduced by improving herd performance and to quantify the effects of such reductions on the industry-level transmission dynamics ...

The aim of the present study was the examination of the boot swab sampling technique for the collection of environmental material in order to identify Mycobacterium avium ssp. paratuberculosis (MAP)-infected herds. Eight dairy herds were included into the study. Four of them had a well-known history of MAP-infection from a herd surveillance programme conducted since 2006. Cows in these herds we...

Airborne transmission of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a risk factor for the infection of susceptible populations. Therefore, a long‑term sustainability study of air filtration as a means to reduce this risk was conducted. Participating herds (n = 38) were organized into 4 independent cohorts and the effect of air filtration on the occurrence of new PRRSV infect...

The objective of this study was to characterize opinions and practices of Wisconsin dairy producers about biosecurity and animal wellbeing. Wisconsin dairy producers were surveyed using a mailed questionnaire and responder herds were categorized based on the number of lactating cows: very small herds (< or =50 lactating cows; n = 279); small herds (51 to 100 lactating cows; n = 202); medium her...

Objectives were to estimate percentages of seropositive herds with cows shedding Mycobacterium paratuberculosis in feces and milk, and to estimate sensitivity, specificity, and predictive value of an ELISA relative to fecal culture. Dairy cows (n = 712) were randomly selected from 61 herds previously identified by ELISA as positive for Johne's disease. Fecal and bulk tank milk samples (n = 52 o...

The objectives of this study were to assess whether current surveillance capacity is sufficient to fulfill EU and Danish regulations to control a hypothetical foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) epidemic in Denmark, and whether enlarging the protection and/or surveillance zones could minimize economic losses. The stochastic spatial simulation model DTU-DADS was further developed to simulate clinical s...

The aim of this study was to investigate differences in disease incidence between organic and conventional herds. The study was based on data from the Norwegian Dairy Herd Recording, which includes the Norwegian Cattle Health Recording System. All herds certified for organic farming in 1994 with a herd size of more than five cow-years were included. Conventional herds were matched on size and r...

The prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites in Danish goats and the presence of anthelmintic resistance (AR) in 10 selected herds were investigated during April-September 2012. All Danish herds (n = 137) with 10 or more adult goats were invited to participate, and of these 27 herds met the inclusion criterion of more than 10 young kids never treated with anthelmintics. Questionnaire data on ma...

BACKGROUND Quarter milk samples from cows with high risk of intramammary infection were examined to determine the prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus (SA) and penicillin resistant SA (SAr) in conventional and organic dairy herds and herds converting to organic farming in a combined longitudinal and cross-sectional study. METHODS 20 conventional herds, 18 organic herds that converted before 19...