Regarding your question about diseases, wildlife spread diseases to domestic animals and domestic animals spread diseases to wildlife. Diseases are opportunistic little critters and they do even better when their subject is weakened by exposure to toxins, used by humans or in plants to protect themselves. I have never seen a deer get into stored feed, since all our feed has to be in containers that are bear proof and deer can't get into anything a bear can't.
Lost one this Morning
- Thread starter sstterry
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Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
Wow - such great information. Thanks.
In the real world of raising cattle, WCS is caused by malnourished dams.
In the real world of raising cattle, WCS is caused by malnourished dams.
wbvs58
Well-known member
BVD causes a lot here Jeanne. Not with my cattle, I vaccinate and keep a closed herd.
Ken
Before 1964, there were no calves born with WCS here or anywhere else. By 1969, lots of calves were born with WCS all over western United States and there were a large number born in western U.S. each year through the 1970s and early 1980s. After 1985, there were almost none born. You are telling us that all the ranchers here suddenly stopped taking good care of their cattle from 1969 through 1985 and then began taking better care of their cattle again and that is what caused the difference. The ranchers that I knew took good care of their cattle, but it didn't seem to make any difference. Also, Dr. Jack Ward, who first identified WCS didn't say a thing to me about ranchers not taking good care of their cattle.
They feed 4-H steers hay and grain to fatten them, so an underbite would not likely affect his ability to eat. Our 2011 study showed that whether the size of the group of animal species measured was large or small, the prevalence of underbite was quite high on all species addressed in the study.
I don't know to which hypothesis you are referring. Measuring hundreds of animals and publishing a peer reviewed study is a bit more than an "observation." One reason for the disrupted bone growth in facial bones of a ruminant species was shown in the SD study of white-tailed deer that were deliberately given imidacloprid. That study was published in Nature and received international attention. And finally, how do you know this, "it can't be addressed or attempted to be fixed" or is this just your hypothesis?
Jeanne - Simme Valley
Well-known member
"Before 1964, there were no calves born with WCS here or anywhere else."
Really? Wow, that is a bold statement. Just because there wasn't a "study" identifying calves born and died of being born weak, doesn't mean it didn't exist.
I am just feeding your ego, giving you someone to debate with. I'm done. You are being blocked by me.
Really? Wow, that is a bold statement. Just because there wasn't a "study" identifying calves born and died of being born weak, doesn't mean it didn't exist.
I am just feeding your ego, giving you someone to debate with. I'm done. You are being blocked by me.
I am really glad to hear that, Ken.
Sorry, I may have stated that incorrectly. The veterinarian who identified and named the first case of WCS did so here in the county in which I live. I should have said there were no identified cases of WCS here or anywhere else prior to 1964. I did say that the first case was "identified" and "named" in 1964 by Jack Ward, DVM. Adios, Jeanne.
I lived on a cattle ranch in the middle southern part of South Dakota until mid-1963. We, nor any of our neighboring ranchers had ever had anything like WCS in calves. In the area of SD where our ranch was the temperatures in the winter often went quite a bit below zero and in the summer it was often over 100 degrees F. We almost never lost a calf to anything - except for one breach birth where the calf died before my dad could get it delivered and one very severe blizzard that directly killed thousands of cattle in SD. Since I was in western Montana in 1964 and after, I read or heard about the WCS that was killing calves in cattle herds here and in other western states. It was in the local newspapers quite often. Bottom line is my dad nor I had ever seen anything like WCS in cattle herds in SD. After we left SD and several years after 1963, WCS became a big problem throughout western states between 1969 and 1985. As I already stated, after 1985 there was nothing said about WCS for at least 10 years here in our area of western Montana and no one was reporting calves being lost to it here in western Montana in that time period. By 1997, WCS was again quite severe here.
I haven't heard much about it in recent years, but the Ag Dept. says that 3 of 100 calves are dying of WCS each year. I don't know personally if that figure is correct. I do know that all WCS calves that I examined dead or alive between 1997 and 2005 had an underbite, and that there are a number of photos of calves born with underbite in recent years on Internet sites, including on Cattletoday. Since I can't go out and examine calves any more, I guess it is up to all of you to determine how many calves are being born with an underbite and hopefully find out why. I wish you all the best.
I haven't heard much about it in recent years, but the Ag Dept. says that 3 of 100 calves are dying of WCS each year. I don't know personally if that figure is correct. I do know that all WCS calves that I examined dead or alive between 1997 and 2005 had an underbite, and that there are a number of photos of calves born with underbite in recent years on Internet sites, including on Cattletoday. Since I can't go out and examine calves any more, I guess it is up to all of you to determine how many calves are being born with an underbite and hopefully find out why. I wish you all the best.
