Neospora is spreading, but no one seems to care enough to support research into the “abortion storm” disease.
“It seems like we can’t kickstart it,” Western College of Veterinary Medicine researcher Eugene Janzen told the Saskatchewan Beef Symposium. “We’re behind the eight ball.”
Neospora is a relatively new disease on the Prairies. It causes cows to abort fetuses. Infected dams often pass the disease to offispring that survive.
In parts of Alberta, neospora is the most serious reproduction problem in dairy herds.
Janzen said the disease is common in Saskatchewan herds.
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“Wherever I look, I find,” said Janzen. He estimates more than half of Saskatchewan cow herds are infected.
But uncovering the size of the problem is proving frustrating, Janzen said, because funding agencies haven’t accepted the disease is a problem. They won’t accept it until they see data that proves it.
But how do you get the data if you can’t get the funding to produce it, Janzen wondered.
“In the old days if you told them you wanted to study a disease and you put together a good proposal, you’d get funding,” he said. “Nowadays everybody is a wannabe professor and thinks they know more than you do.”
Janzen said surveying the prevalence of the disease wouldn’t be difficult. Blood used in other studies could also be tested for neospora.
Or a certain number of carcasses that go through the Moose Jaw packing plant could be tested.
But many producers don’t consider the disease a real threat and aren’t urging producer organizations to support research.
Janzen said the average producer probably doesn’t even know there’s a problem on his farm.
He blamed governments for pulling out of research. All the western governments have cut their funding for research into cattle and pig diseases, considering those industries to be “mature,” and therefore able to pay their own costs.
