Animal Bytes

December 11, 2012

Free Official Eartags

The Minnesota Board of Animal Health is now offering free official eartags to veterinarians and cattle, bison and farmed cervidae producers. Our mission is to prevent disease in domestic animals and to get rid of disease when it is found. When animals are identified with official tags and records are kept, the job can be done much more quickly and accurately.

We are offering four types of free official ID:

Please call us at 651-296-2942 to order your free official eartags and livestock inventory worksheets.

Pet Food Recall Notification

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture is pleased to offer a new notification system for pet food and pet treat recalls. Interested parties may sign up to receive automatic notifications when recalls are announced by the Food and Drug Administration.

Please send your preferred email address to: Petfood.Recall@state.mn.us.

MVMA Annual Meeting

The Board of Animal Health will have a booth at the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association (MVMA) Annual Meeting this coming February.

Accredited veterinarians and technicians: Stop by our booth to learn about how your job can be made easier! Talk with us about new and current options available for issuing electronic Certificates of Veterinary Inspection. Need official ID to tag cattle? We will have free eartags for veterinarians to take home.

Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease

First case identified in Minnesota

In October, a cow in Brown County was drooling and had erosions on the mucous membrane around the mouth and muzzle. The herd veterinarian reported the symptoms to the Board of Animal Health. A Board district veterinarian conducted an investigation and collected samples from the animal. The samples tested positive for the serotype 2 strain of Epizootic Hemorrhagic Disease (EHD) virus. The animal was treated by the practitioner and has since recovered.

This was the first clinical case of the virus identified in any species in Minnesota. EHD is a viral infection of North American deer and is transmitted by insect vectors. This summer, EHD caused widespread death in wild deer across the United States, including South Dakota, Iowa and Wisconsin. Cattle in several western states (with an epidemic in wild deer) were also affected.

Sickness and death rates in cattle were low. Reported clinical signs in cattle included dehydration, lethargy, a 'crusty muzzle' and drooling. Affected animals often had extensive muzzle and mouth sores which were likely painful and the reason they avoided drinking. Some animals also had lesions on the teats.

It is difficult to predict whether EHD will reappear anytime soon in this area of the state. A virologist with expertise in EHD said that other northern states where the disease was recently identified have seen sporadic recurrence.