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A survey of gastrointestinal parasites in Saskatchewan beef herds was conducted over the summer of 2014. Fecal samples were collected on 3 occasions during the summer grazing season from beef cows and calves from 14 herds. The mean number of strongylid eggs per gram of feces recovered from calves increased 9-fold (95% CI: 4.5 to 18) over the summer period, while egg counts in the cows remained constant over the same period. The prevalence and infection intensities of gastrointestinal nematode parasites in cow-calf herds in Saskatchewan were comparable to what is seen in cattle grazing in the northern regions of the United States and for which anthelmintic treatments have resulted in positive production benefits.

Tritrichomonas foetus is recognized as important cause of reproductive loss in beef herds. Strategies for the control of trichomonosis (trich) in beef herds are based on identifying and eliminating infected bulls. The sensitivity of conventional PCR methods is sufficient for use of detecting trich in pooled preputial samples from up to five bulls. Areal-time PCR (RT-PCR) assay for trich detection has shown improved sensitivity, compared with that of the conventional PCR assay. Previous research from our group demonstrated that pools of samples from up to 25 bulls, enriched by culture, could be tested for trich with the RT-PCR assay without a significant decrease in sensitivity. The objective of the present study was to evaluate the sensitivity of a commercially available RT-PCR assay for the detection of trich in pooled samples of direct preputial samples from five or 10 bulls., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2012

Bovine genital campylobacteriosis occurs worldwide wherever natural service is used. The disease is transmitted by carrier bulls and characterized by early pregnancy loss and infertility. Despite the challenge of maintaining viability of the Campylobacter fetus subsp venerealis (Cfv) during transport and avoiding overgrowth of contaminants, culture remains the "gold standard". Several PCR tests have been developed for the detection of Cfv, and primers VenSF/VenSR have been extensively tested and recognized worldwide. Recently, our research group at WCVM adapted these primers to a SYER Green qPCR platform. This assay presents a high analytical sensitivity and provides a fast and effective technique, suitable to be used as a screening test for the detection of carrier bulls. The objective of the present study was to determine the clinical sensitivity and specificity of the RT-PCR assay in direct preputial samples., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2012

The detection and subspeciation of Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis (CFV) from veterinary samples is important for both clinical and economic reasons. Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis is the causative agent of bovine genital campylobacteriosis, a venereal disease that can lead to serious reproductive problems in cattle, and strict international regulations require animals and animal products to be CFV-free for trade. This study evaluated methods reported in the literature for CFV detection and reports the translation of an extensively tested CFV-specific polymerase chain reaction (PCR) primer set; including the VenSF/VenSR primers and a real-time, quantitative PCR (qPCR) platform using SYBR Green chemistry. Three methods of preputial sample preparation for direct qPCR were evaluated and a heat lysis DNA extraction method was shown to allow for CFV detection at the level of approximately one cell equivalent per reaction (or 1.0 × 10(3) CFU/mL) from prepuce. The optimized sample preparation and qPCR protocols were then used to evaluate 3 western Canadian bull cohorts, which included 377 bulls, for CFV. The qPCR assay detected 11 positive bulls for the CFV-specific parA gene target. DNA sequence data confirmed the identity of the amplified product and revealed that positive samples were comprised of 2 sequence types; one identical to previously reported CFV parA gene sequences and one with a 9% sequence divergence. These results add valuable information towards our understanding of an important CFV subspeciation target and offer a significantly improved format for an internationally recognized PCR test.

Tritrichomonas foetus has long plagued the beef industry all around the world (Campbell et al, 1993). Control of trichomonosis (trich) in beef herds is mostly based on eliminating infected bulls (Clark et al, 1983). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods are gradually replacing traditional culture in the detection of trich in preputial scrape samples. A previous study showed a sensitivity and specificity of 100% when pools of five individual samples were tested using conventional PCR (Kennedy et al, 2008). The use of a real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) based assay has been shown to improve sensitivity and specificity over conventional PCR and culture methods (McMillen et al, 2006). The objective of the present study was to evaluate the sensitivity of a commercially available RT-PCR assay for trich in pooled preputial samples at different ratios., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2011

Campylobacter jejuni is a bacterium known to cause enteritis in people. In Alberta, campylobacteriosis is the most common foodborne disease and the third most common reportable disease after chicken pox and hepatitis C. Poultry are considered to be a primary source of human-pathogenic C. jejuni; however other domestic animals species may be important sources or reservoirs of this bacterium. The purpose of this project was to estimate the prevalence of Campylobacter species in feedlot cattle feces and retail ground beef in southern Alberta, and to identify C. jejuni isolates for future molecular characterization (DNA microarray)., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2007

The objective of the Canadian Beef Production Limiting Diseases project was to conduct provincial serological surveys across Canada for production limiting diseases in cow-calf herds. The diseases were chosen because they are three diseases known to occur in Canada and all have subclinical carrier states. Each of these diseases has significant economic implications in terms of trade or reduced productivity, and none are easily controlled using conventional treatment methods. The diseases chosen to estimate prevalence for were bovine leukosis virus (BLV), Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (Johne's Disease) and Neospora caninum (Neosporosis). Provincial surveys had already taken place in dairy cattle, and two provinces (Manitoba and Quebec) had already performed surveys of beef cattle., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2005

Two experiments were conducted to determine whether caudal epidural lidocaine anesthesia reduces a stress response to electroejaculation. In the 1st experiment, changes in cortisol and progesterone concentrations in serial blood samples were used to assess the stress response to restraint (control), transrectal massage, caudal epidural injection of saline, electroejaculation after caudal epidural injection of lidocaine, and electroejaculation without epidural lidocaine. In the 2nd experiment, behavioral responses were subjectively scored in bulls that were electroejaculated with or without caudal epidural lidocaine anesthesia. Cortisol and progesterone concentrations were significantly elevated after electroejaculation, whether or not bulls received caudal epidural anesthesia. Elevations in cortisol and progesterone were lower and fewer bulls vocalized during electroejaculation when given caudal epidural anesthesia; however, the differences were not significant.

Blood samples were collected from 1806 pregnancy-tested cows from 174 herds at a northern Alberta auction mart in the fall of 1998. One hundred sixty-two (9.0%) of these samples were positive for antibodies to N. caninum. Thirty-five of 260 samples (13.5%) collected from the same region in the 1980s were also serologically positive for N. caninum.