Chronic Diarrhea

Question 1

What are the common ddx’s for chronic diarrhea in adult cattle?

Answer 1

Paratuberculosis, liver flukes (in BC), copper deficiency

Question 2

what are the C/S for Johne’s Disease? what is the typical signalment?

Answer 2

adult cattle (>2yo)
chronic diarrhea, weight loss

protein losing enteropathy –> can lead to edema

usually no pyrexia, blood, or mucus

Question 3

How do you diagnose Johne’s Disease?

Answer 3

blood antibody ELISA (cheapest, most widely used)
fecal PCR (most specific, useful to confirm cases)
fecal culture
necropsy (gold standard)

Question 4

How do you manage Johne’s Disease?

Answer 4

on a farm with JD, goal is to reduce the repro rate of disease (R0)
- stop infection of calves
- ID risky cows

vax available (limit shedding, limit disease, but don’t eliminate either)
- make serological monitoring redundant
- interfere with bTB testing

chemoprophylaxis
- monensin may be protective, may reduce shedding sometime

Question 5

mineral deficiencies often have ____ signs. they are most common in _____ systems.

Answer 5

vague, extensive

Question 6

what is the difference between primary and secondary copper deficiency?

Answer 6

primary: too little copper in diet
secondary: too much antagonist, like molybdenum or sulphate

Question 7

what are the symptoms of copper deficiency?

Answer 7

reduced hair pigment, diarrhea, weight loss, poor fertility

Question 8

how do you diagnose copper deficiency?

Answer 8

sample liver at slaughter
feed testing

Question 9

how do you tx copper deficiency?

Answer 9

supplement Cu
mineral mix, boluses, injection

Question 10

what is the etiology of Johne’s disease?

Answer 10

Mycobacterium avium subsp. Paratuberculosis

Question 11

true or false: Johne’s disease is provincially notifiable.

Answer 11

true!!

Question 12

what is the tx for Johne’s disease?

Answer 12

no treatment available, it’s a progressive disease

most humane thing to do is cull in the presence of clinical signs

Question 13

how does Johne’s disease spread?

Answer 13

fecal oral transmission, but its caught as a calf (the risk declines with age; they are most @ risk the day they’re born)

shedding and disease happen as adults (long incubation)

not able to detect in intervening time :(

Question 14

tell me which tests you would recommend in these scenarios of JD:
1. control program in high prevalence (>5% herd)
2. control program in low prevalence (<5%) herd

Answer 14

1. ELISA
2. PCR or fecal culture