Yes, all of those things MIGHT occur... but most show very little signs of that, and honestly, how many people see their beef cattle that often to notice those differences. Unless you see a cow that is "off" and then have a vet do a blood test ( I think that it can show up in blood... but whatever they do to test it besides milk) then it is highly unlikely you are going to know if they have it. It is mostly showing up in the milk and in a drop in feed consumption... and they seem to get over it in about 2 weeks from the last reports I have read. I'm not a vet, but the dairy farmers I have talked to here recently are not going into panic mode over it in this area. Our vet did preg checks last week on a group of cows and he said it is not on the top of their list to be worrying about with the dairy herds he does regular herd checks for and no beef cows are on their radar. We have a much bigger problem here with is Longhorn tick disease ...
theileria... which causes unthrifty cattle, abortion and can kill the cattle if severe. These ticks are a major problem...especially along the interstate routes is seems... and then cattle taken home to other areas... found a "normal tick" on the scotum of bull that just went through his BSE the other day....
