The Rural Voice, 2002-06, Page 40Mycoplasma has become a
painful condition, both for cable,.)
and cattle producers:
Mycoplasma miseries
When cattle ,get sick with mycoplasma,
cattle producers feel the pain too
Story by Bonnie Gropp
Jf you feed cattle, you probably
have encountered mycoplasma.
Ken Bateman, of the Ontario
Veterinary College, says that 30
years ago, the bacteria primarily
caused arthritis in cattle, but in the
past 10-15 year period it has been
creeping in as pneumonia. "It's not as
well recognized, but I'm sure we saw
it well before 1995 here."
Historically, he says, fed cattle
prior to 1990 were often victims of
shipping fever pneurhonia. Since
then mycoplasma pneumonia and
polyarthritis have begun to appear.
"It is becoming increasingly
important."
While shipping fever leaves the
lung feeling much like liver, a lung
infected with mycoplasma looks like
it has been hit by a shotgun blast.
Calling it a debilitating, painful
disease, Bateman said "the animals
36 THE RURAL VOICE
don't have the decency to die, but
linger awhile and make life
miserable."
While a few cases will just
experience pneumonia about four-
fifths will suffer as well from
arthritis. This affects the joints and
soft tissue as well as the tendons.
Inside the lung there will be micro-
abscesses and it will develop a
"cheesy" texture. Some studies show
that some lungs may have had a bit
of both shipping fever and
mycoplasma pneumonia, says
Bateman.
"If you've had this (in your cattle)
you know it's a painful series of
events."
Because it is often difficult to
diagnose, the afflicted animal will
first be treated for respiratory
disease, but will relapse in seven to
10 days. There may not be lameness
at this point. The joints affected in
the front leg are usually from the
knee upward and from the hock
upward in the rear leg. The animal
will be treated again, and the joint
will begin to swell. Sometimes more
than one joint can be involved.
"However, in some cases," says
Bateman, "it can be a puzzlement as
to why the animal can't stand or is
lame because sometimes the joints
don't show any swelling."
The animal will be treated several
times, and Bateman says the
producer will often feel like he's
wasting time and money. "It's
extremely painful around the joint
and pretty hard to get an antibiotic in
there to do any good."
At this point if the animal can be
put in a convalescent pen, that
provides extra shelter and better
footing, there can be a success rate of
up to 90 per cent, but more often
around 50-60 per cent.
The animal is susceptible to
other diseases, and while they
are long past the point when a
farmer might want to give them
antibiotics, they should be monitored
to see if other pneumonias develop.
"It can be a bit of an
embarrassment from an animal
welfare standpoint as it appears
nothing is being done for the animal.