Friendly Fido might help round up cattle and keep ranchers company around the pasture, but he also might be spreading a disease to the herd.
Wyoming researchers recently discovered evidence that strongly suggests neospora is spread by dogs, whose feces can be eaten by cattle.
Because of this, Sundre, Alta., veterinarian Cheryl Waldner said producers should try to keep dog feces away from feed.
Raising mineral feeders off the ground and keeping dogs out of silage pits is recommended.
Disposing of field abortions quickly is also important, she said, because dogs and coyotes often eat aborted fetuses and become carriers of the disease.
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Researchers do not know if coyotes can transfer the disease.
Neospora is a rapidly spreading cattle disease that causes abortions in a herd.
The disease can be passed from cow to fetus, which causes some calf fetuses to be aborted, and others to be born infected.
Steers no problem
An infected steer is no worry, Waldner told the Saskatchewan Beef Symposium. These animals can grow to maturity with no complications if they are born healthy. A small percentage of infected calves are born showing signs of neurological damage, such as hind leg paralysis, Waldner said.
But an infected heifer carries the infection and can have three to five times the average number of abortions through her life. Her offspring are also likely to be infected.
Until this summer, veterinarians didn’t know where the disease permanently resided. Cattle provide a viable home for neospora, but not a preferred residence. Cow-to-cow transmission is not known to occur.
Vets have found two stages of the disease in cattle: a brain tissue cyst in calves and a mobile organism in animals’ liver and muscles. They have not found eggs.
But eggs have been found in dogs and researchers suspect the disease spreads from dogs, where it can live its entire life cycle, to cattle through dog feces, which the cattle eat.
There is no known vaccine or treatment for neospora.
