Farmers denied access to drug to treat 'nightmare' parasite killing dairy cows

Cows are suffering and dying from bovine anaemia because farmers are being denied access to a drug which has been approved in at least 20 countries, dairy owners and a veterinary doctor in eastern Victoria say. By national rural and regional correspondent Dominique Schwartz and Xanthe Kleinig.
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They say cow welfare is being compromised by government and industry’s overarching focus on protecting Australia’s lucrative livestock trade.
WARNING: This story contains images of dead animals that readers may find distressing
Dairy farmer Brett Keily lost 25 cows and as many calves within six weeks of moving onto his dairy farm near Bairnsdale, in East Gippsland.
«You wake up in the morning and go outside and wonder what kind of a nightmare you’re walking into every day,» he said.
«All I can liken it to is like watching someone dying of cancer — they fade away, get weak, can’t get up, don’t eat or drink and that’s the end of them.
«It’s just plain cruel watching them go down with this disease and knowing there’s something available to treat them with we are not allowed to have.»
It is view expressed to the ABC by four other farmers.
Hobby farmer Jill Kent has been working around the clock to keep her pregnant cow, Hope, alive.
«It’s been a long haul with her, carrying feed and water to her every day and trying to put an old rug over her at night-time and just looking after her and hoping she gets better,» she said.
«[It’s] really upsetting if I know something that could cure her and it’s not available, that’s heartbreaking.»
What is bovine anaemia?
Bovine anaemia is caused by a tick-borne parasite which destroys red blood cells and can leave a cow pale, panting, and unable to stand or fight off secondary infections.
The parasite — in the Theileria orientalis group — can infect both dairy and beef cattle, and usually flares when animals are under stress, such as when pregnant or being moved.
Virulent strains of the parasite are now found in all mainland states.
Separate Australian Meat and Livestock reports this year classed bovine anaemia as an «emerging threat» and estimated it had cost the beef and dairy industries $20 million per annum since 2006.
Brett Keily, who as a Murray Goulburn supplier has taken a huge cut in his milk payments, estimated the disease had cost him between $75,000 and $100,000 this year.
«Certainly dairy farmers have been doing it very tough recently and Theileria is something they don’t need to deal with on top of already low milk prices,» Bairnsdale veterinarian Jade Hammer said.
Is there a treatment for cows?
A single injection of the drug buparvaquone, if administered early in a cow’s infection, can greatly reduce mortality rates, Dr Hammer said.
He said the drug had been registered in about 20 countries but not Australia, even though the Queensland Government’s Tick Fever Centre recommended five years ago that tightly controlled use of buparvaquone be pursued «as a matter of urgency».
The drug was used successfully in New Zealand in 2013 to stem an outbreak of bovine anaemia across the North Island, according to veterinarian Mark Hosking, who was instrumental in getting the NZ Government to allow the medicine’s importation.
«We treated ourselves, our practice, about 600 to 700 (cows),» Dr Hosking said.
«I would say three quarters of those survived.»
Drug ‘threat to Australia’s meat exports’
As the drug can stay in a cow’s system for up to four months, New Zealand authorities required that milk and meat from treated cows not enter the food chain for long periods — 43 days for milk, and a year-and-a-half for meat.
NZ’s Ministry of Primary Industries has told the ABC that use of the drug was tightly controlled and that none of its export markets expressed concern about use of the drug.
«There’s lots of benefits but some real challenges around withholding (times) and it comes down to how much animal welfare is an issue in an outbreak, whether it’s wanted,» Dr Hosking said.
But the risk to Australia’s lucrative meat and livestock trade outweighs the drug’s benefits, according to Federal Agriculture Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce.
Mr Joyce wrote in December to a concerned dairy farmer who would like to see the drug registered:
«As major overseas markets have not established a Maximum Residue Level (MRL), detection of buparvaquone … in our exports would be regarded as a violation and have serious adverse consequences for the Australian cattle industry.»
Mr Joyce said controlling buparvaquone’s use would require «a stringent and onerous regulatory framework» which «is not a preferred option».
Outbreak caused deaths among Australian cows in Vietnam
But the ABC can reveal that Australian cattle exports have already been adversely affected — by untreated bovine anaemia.
The ABC has obtained an email sent in March this year to Narelle Clegg, the assistant secretary of the live animal exports branch of the Agriculture Department.
It said that pregnant Australian dairy cows sent to Vietnam suffered abortions or died after arrival and that the vet on the ground recognised it as an outbreak of theileriosis.
There were «lots» of animals affected, the email said.
Cattle in the consignment were then treated with a single-dose medication from Uganda and India — two countries which manufacture buparvaquone — which brought the issue «under control».
The Cattle Council of Australia and Dairy Australia believe the restrictions on buparvaquone would make it unworkable and that the drug residues would pose too much of a risk to exports.
«Trade is one aspect but many farmers would happily abide by extremely long withhold periods if it meant saving a cow and many aren’t involved in the export industry,» Dr Hammer said.
«Many farmers have approached me to try and have it registered.»
Farmer Brett Keily said he would not hesitate to use buparvaquone if that was what the doctor ordered.
«A cow dead in the paddock is worth nothing even if I hold on to it for 18 months to on-sell, it’s a much better option than watching it die,» he said.
 
Source: ABC
Link: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-09-21/farmers-denied-access-to-drug-to-treat-nightmare-parasite/7857938
 

Mirá También

Así lo expresó Domingo Possetto, secretario de la seccional Rafaela, quien además, afirmó que a los productores «habitualmente los ignoran los gobiernos». Además, reconoció la labor de los empresarios de las firmas locales y aseguró que están «esperanzados» con la negociación entre SanCor y Adecoagro.

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