A Bairnsdale vet said red tape is stopping him and his colleagues effectively treating a blood disease that is affecting production and at times, killing cows.
Bovine anaemia caused by a parasite theileria, which Dr Jade Hammer said research showed was carried by ticks as well by lice and mosquitoes, is now one of the most common reasons he and colleagues saw sick cows.
He said warm, humid weather support ticks and the disease’s spread.
Due to environmental conditions this year around Bairnsdale, he said they were seeing cases very often. He said recently two stud bulls valued at over $50,000 each died from the disease and currently he has a dairy farmer client who is currently losing both calves and cows at calving.
The parasite affects red blood cells and in some animals, enough of these are destroyed to cause anaemia, which reduces the ability of blood to carry oxygen and makes the animal ill.
Dr Hammer said the adverse impacts on local farmers also included production losses and vet bills, as well as the psychological burden of seeing their formerly healthy, productive animals suffer.
An anti‐protozoal drug Buparvaquone (BPQ) is used in some overseas markets including New Zealand and according to Dr Hammer has been shown to be very effective, including in Australian studies.
But because no maximum residue limit has been set in key international markets any detection of BPQ in export products will be considered a violation and could severely impact Australia’s export markets.
One of Dr Hammer’s clients who has lost cows to theileria in the past few year, and who did not wish to be named, said it was absurd that Australia imports thousands of tonnes of Cheese from NZ where the drug’s use is permitted.
He said he had written to many parliamentarians over the years and even appealed to drug companies to get the drug registered, but he had got a stock standard response about the risks to export markets.
“But if farmers don’t abide by any drug’s withholding periods, there could be the same ramifications on export markets,” he said.
Dr Hammer said the failure to have this drug registered for use in Australia was an animal welfare issue.
“Us vets feel a bit hopeless when we arrive to a sick cow, diagnose theileria, and then say we have nothing we can give to help,” he said.
He said vets good provide pain relief, anti-inflammatory and treatment of secondary bacterial infections with antibiotics.
Dr Hammer said another challenge stifling vets’ efforts was the “severe lack” lack of knowledge of the parasite in Australia, do he has taken on studies himself into the parasite’s transmission and prevalence in ippsland.
Dr Hammer’s studies, with funding from Meat and Livestock Australia and the University of Sydney and support from the local United Dairyfarmers of Victoria, has found the parasite can be transmitted very easily even with very small volumes of blood, as well as from cow to calf before birth and has been detected in cow’s colostrum.
He has found in some local dairy farms more than 60 per cent of cattle carry the parasite.
