Disease Recording A Cross-Roads for the Dairy Industry David Kelton, DVM, PhD Department of Population Medicine University of Guelph

Questions to be addressed………  Why record disease events?  Where did this road begin?  How far have we come?  What are the paths ahead? What do you think?

Our Interest in Animal Health The Ontario Milk Act says: “Milk from healthy cows” What does ‘healthy’ mean?

Why record clinical cases of disease? Diagnosis and therapy of sick Health management – benchmarking Biosecurity - animal movement Genetic selection – functional traits Surveillance for status & trade Research – prevention & control Sign-off for herd health status

Diseases of interest………… Major Diseases Impacting Canada’s Dairy Herds ConditionImportanceInfectiousNon-Infectious Udder HealthMilk QualityMastitisCleanliness LamenessWelfareDigital DermatitisLaminitis ReproductiveLongevityMetritis/EndometritisHeat Detection Calf DiseasesFuture of Herd Diarrhea & Pneumonia Underfeeding Foreign Animal Diseases Trade & SurvivalFMD / BLV Production Limiting Milk, Calves & Meat Johne’sSub-Clinical Ketosis Zoonoses Consumers & Farm Families Crypto

National Disease Recording - History 1990’s Lots of clinical disease diagnosed daily Computers allow ‘easy’ collection of data Interest in National Disease Recording for surveillance and genetic evaluation! The next logical step…….

National Disease Recording - History

Focus on Peri-partum Diseases –Retained Placenta –Metritis –Mastitis –Milk Fever –Ketosis –Lameness –Displaced Abomasum

Recommendations for National Standards Prepared for: Cattle Breeding Research Council of Canada

Canadian National Health Project -2007

CanWest DHI Health Report

Herds Recording Disease Events Canadian Health Project 2X

Challenges of Disease Recording Disease Definitions –Clinical….Sub-clinical….“Test” Accuracy….Repeatability…. diseaseDoes disease get recorded at all….anywhere….how much? diseaseDoes disease get into an electronic database….anywhere? diseaseDoes disease get uploaded to a central location….where? diseaseCan disease move from a local bureau to a central location? diseaseIs there any disease data validation….anywhere?

Disease Events Recorded on Ontario Dairy Farms from 1999 to 2009! Percent of Herds Recording Specific Disease EventEvents/Herd Disease Retained Placenta Metritis (Acute) Mastitis LamenessProblem Ketosis Milk Fever DisplacedAbomasum How do we measure progress?

Genetic Evaluations with Canadian Data DiseaseIncidence  2 s x 10 4 SE(  2 s ) x 10 4 2y2y h2h2 Mastitis7.7% Lameness5.1% Cystic ovarian disease6.4% Displaced abomasum3.1% Ketosis3.6% Metritis / uterine disease5.3% Milk fever4.2% Retained placenta4.4% Table 4. Estimated incidence, sire (  2 s ) and phenotypic (  2 y ) variances, and heritabilities (h 2 ) for 8 disease traits when only data from herds with at least 1 case of the disease analyzed are kept in the dataset. T. F.-O. Neuenschwander, 2009

Genetic Evaluations with Canadian Data Relationship between percentage of healthy cows and relative breeding value (RBV) for mastitis resistance of sires with at least 30 daughters (n=180) A. Koeck et al., 2011 SCC& Clinical Mastitis

Veterinary Sign-off on Animal Health EU – Dairy Herd Health Declaration and RAMP USA – Food Safety Modernization Act – Jan, 2011

Options moving forward…….. Status quo….. Increase emphasis on milk testing Incorporate AHL submission data Target a particular disease…….

Disease Event Recording through DC305 Used at the FARM and PRACTICE Level

>75% of Ontario dairy Herds are enrolled with DHI Increased Testing of Milk Easy access to individual cow (& bulk tank) milk samples for Active and Passive Surveillance

Milk tests – easy but NOT cheap! Johne’s Disease BLV Neospora Staph aureus Strep ag Ketones BVD ??????

Surveillance Coverage – Milk vs. Serum

AHL Submission Data for Syndromic Surveillance ?? Nanda Dorea, 2011 Detecting aberrations in baseline data

Ontario Johne’s Education and Management Assistance Program Risk Assessment and Management Plan (RAMP) Johne’s Disease……..Targetted Dairy Biosecurity

SCC Penalty Level from 500 to ~9% Mastitis Cases Mastitis Cultures Mastitis Treatment (CQM)

Which path should we follow? As animal health and production professionals, where do you see value in the ongoing efforts to capture Disease Events on Canadian Dairy Farms?

Acknowledgements and Questions