Unsolved Cattle Deaths Lead To Investigation
WEST LAFAYETTE - Purdue University veterinary pathologists are investigating the deaths of 12 cattle at a Clark County farm in southern Indiana, but they say it's unlikely that the cause is either bluetongue virus or epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, as has been reported.
9 October 2007
2 minute read
'It would be premature to speculate until our diagnostic laboratory has a chance to examine tissues from these animals'
Duane Murphy, co-director of the Heeke Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the center.
Tests are being conducted at the Southern Indiana-Purdue Agricultural Center that houses an Indiana State Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory. The veterinarians won't be able to pinpoint why the animals died until diagnostic work is completed, but a local veterinarian who looked at the cattle did not see signs consistent with either disease, said Duane Murphy, co-director of the Heeke Animal Disease Diagnostic Laboratory at the center.
"The local veterinarian didn't see the sores on the lips, mouth, nose or teats that are consistent with bluetongue or EHD (epizootic hemorrhagic disease), and neither disease is considered highly fatal in cattle," Murphy said. "So we suspect that these cows died of some other causes. It would be premature to speculate until our diagnostic laboratory has a chance to examine tissues from these animals."
Murphy expects preliminary tissue tests from one of the dead animals to be complete in one to two days. Some of the test procedures will take several weeks.
Bluetongue is extremely rare, and perhaps nonexistent, in Indiana, and it's considered a nonfatal disease, Murphy said.
"In areas where bluetongue exists, it is a mild, non-fatal disease in cattle that causes mouth, tongue or nasal sores," he said. "It can be deadly to sheep, but we have no record or anecdotal evidence of cattle or sheep cases in Indiana."
Bluetongue is similar to epizootic hemorrhagic disease virus, which has been epidemic and fatal in whitetail deer in southern Indiana and Kentucky recently, but they are two different diseases, he said. Both can cause sores on the mouth, lips, nose, teats and around hooves. Although some cases in southern Indiana cattle have been reported this year, it's unusual for domestic livestock to contract the disease, and fatalities are extremely rare.
"EHD virus does not cause severe illness in domestic livestock, but it does occur sporadically. Some cases of EHD have been diagnosed in cattle this fall."
When cattle are affected by epizootic hemorrhagic disease, a small percentage may exhibit stiffness, lameness, loss of appetite, excessive salivation and reduced milk production that lasts from two days to two weeks, Murphy said. The cattle usually recover on their own.
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