NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A virulent bacterium capable of killing adult cattle in less than a day has emerged.
Bibersteinia trehalosi has been found in small ruminants such as sheep or goats as well as wildlife such as white-tailed deer, elk and bighorn sheep.
Now it is showing up in adult cattle, which die of pneumonia within 12 to 18 hours.
It was first diagnosed in dairy cattle in California about 15 years ago.
“About four years ago we got our first jump to adult cattle on pasture,” Vic Cortese, a veterinarian with Zoetis, said at the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association convention, which was held in Nashville Feb. 1-4.
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“We thought it was a subtype of Mannheimia haemolytica.”
The disease strikes so quickly that the cattle do not go off feed or appear sick until it is too late. A necropsy may show a full rumen, but the lungs are hemorrhagic.
Cortese has seen outbreaks in Montana, Colorado and the Dakotas.
“I had a herd in Montana that lost 140 cows in five weeks,” he said.
“This will get your attention.”
It moves quickly and unlike most pneumonia strains, it travels from the bloodstream to the lungs rather than the nose to the lungs.
Purebred producers who show cattle need to consider vaccination because the disease can be picked up at an event and come back home.
“Be aware of this new bacterium, and I hope you never see it,” he said.
Research is underway to find protection. Some pastuerella vaccines, help but the bacterium is resistant to the antibiotic florfenicil.
