Tommy Coyote Posted January 15, 2011 Report Share Posted January 15, 2011 I just saw this and thought it might be interesting to people here with cattle. Stockton, Wi http://www.startribune.com/local/113679204.html They think the cause might be IBR/BVD virus. I don't understand. If 200 cows are dead from this virus how can they be saying it is not dangerous to humans or other animals? Anybody know about this illness? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bc4ever Posted January 15, 2011 Report Share Posted January 15, 2011 I just saw this and thought it might be interesting to people here with cattle. Stockton, Wi http://www.startribune.com/local/113679204.html They think the cause might be IBR/BVD virus. I don't understand. If 200 cows are dead from this virus how can they be saying it is not dangerous to humans or other animals? Anybody know about this illness? Could this be related to all the birds and fish that have been turning up dead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mark Billadeau Posted January 15, 2011 Report Share Posted January 15, 2011 Some viruses are species specific. In this case Infectious bovine rhinotracheitisis specific to cattle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloria Atwater Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 Could this be related to all the birds and fish that have been turning up dead? Nope. Nor do I think the dead birds and dead fish are related to each other. I think the media has just suddenly gotten aware of weird mass animal deaths, so now they're looking for those stories. Kind of like a few years ago, when all the headlines were about "home alone" latchkey kids. It only became an epidemic when the media took notice. The situation itself wasn't new at all. Meanwhile, this article says that IBR is actually related to the stuff that makes cold sores in humans: http://www.ugabeef.caes.uga.edu/pdf/MIBR2.pdf But humans won't get IBR and cows won't get cold sores. Cheers ~ Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 I wonder if these cows were vaccinated for IBR? I know ours are. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dream spirit Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 I thought they had found the fish / bird kills were related to some toxic nerve gas leak from a munition facility ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pearse Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 I used to work on BVDV (bovine viral diarrhoea virus)and IBR/BHV-I (Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis /Bovine Herpes Virus type I) and, while it would be rare to get this many dead cattle at once, BVDV can cause these kinds of problems if a lot of the herd was persistently infected. IBR (bovine herpesvirus) rarely causes death but can certainly weaken cattle and cause some immunosuppression making it more likely that BVDV infections could kill them. If cattle are infected with one form of BVDV in utero or as young calves, they can become persistently infected and immunotolerant. If that strain mutates in one or more animals to what's called a cytopathic strain, or the herd is infected with a cytopathic strain, the persistently infected animals can't mount an immune response. If the new strain is strongly pathogenic, it can cause enough damage to kill animals. Vaccinating persistently infected animals doesn't work. There have been reports of some strains of BVDV that can kill non-persistently infected, immunologically naive (never seen virus before, never vaccinated) animals. It's a weird (read interesting biology) virus. Sounds like this herd may have had some recognized herd health issues that the producer and his/her vet were working on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sue R Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 Thanks, Pearse, that's very interesting. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gloria Atwater Posted January 16, 2011 Report Share Posted January 16, 2011 I thought they had found the fish / bird kills were related to some toxic nerve gas leak from a munition facility ? I hadn't heard that, but I doubt it's true. The bird die-offs happened in two different states, and the Arkansas fish kill was 125 miles from the nearest bird die-off. Further, if the kills had a single source, they would not have been species-specific. It would have been *all* birds in an area and *all* fish, not just blackbirds and drum fish. If you look at this site, you'll see that die-offs of various species are not entirely unusual, they just go unreported. Look for bats, coots, eared grebes - and those are statistics just since April 1st of last year. The media simply didn't notice. http://www.nwhc.usgs.gov/mortality_events/ongoing.jsp ~ Gloria Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dream spirit Posted January 19, 2011 Report Share Posted January 19, 2011 Gloria, I had read shortly after the bird/ fish kills that there was a poision gas "Phosgene " that was being stored at a military base in Arkansas, that it was being transported and there was some sort of malfunction with the plane shortly after takeoff which "may" have released some of the chemical into the air...then a short time after John Wheeler (who was satated as an expert in chemical / biological weapons ) was found dead because he was a whistle blower. Now this most likely is just media hype as was "the end of the world" hype that was flowing just before this hype about the kills. Anyway that was what I had read and never gave it more thought . Just figured anothe screw up from Uncle Sam! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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