A myotonic goat, otherwise known as the fainting goat, is a domestic goat whose muscles freeze for roughly 10 seconds when the goat feels panic. Though painless, this generally results in the animal's collapsing on its side. The characteristic is caused by a hereditary genetic disorder called myotonia congenita. When startled, younger goats will stiffen and fall over. Older goats learn to spread their legs or lean against something when startled, and often they continue to run about in an awkward, stiff-legged shuffle.
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![]() April 16, 2014 - The Purina Animal Nutrition LLC feed plant in Portland, Ore., has initiated a limited recall of certain poultry feeds due to the potential for lower-than-expected vitamin and trace mineral levels. The products were distributed to retailers in Oregon and Washington. Inadequate vitamin and trace mineral levels can result in health problems, including mortality, in poultry. No customer complaints have been received to date. The products and lot numbers involved in the recall are: The problem was discovered during the investigation of an ingredient inventory discrepancy. Retailers have been contacted and instructed to immediately withdraw from sale the recalled product and notify customers who purchased the product. Customers should discontinue feeding the product immediately. Customers who purchased this product should return remaining bags to their retailer. For more information on the product recall, contact Customer Service at 1-800-245-5333, Monday through Friday 7:00 AM to 4:30 PM PDT. Breaking news!!!
This year’s annual Manure Expo is in Springfield, Missouri! That’s right, for all you manure industry enthusiasts out there, this expo combines not one, not two, but THREE attractions into a single national event: an industry trade show, manure technology demonstrations, and educational events. Veterinarians are....uhhh...ummmm.... sort of manure experts. If you give them a sample of manure from a clinically healthy domesticated farm animal, they can usually identify said animal based on the appearance of its manure alone. And that, my friends, is a skill one should put on one’s resume. Here's an interesting factoid....swine feces can almost quite literally come in a rainbow of colors, and sometimes the color of the manure gives you the diagnosis. Here's another life altering bit of information....caterpillar excrement is called frass. This is the only place one could ever include a facts like these. Knowledge is power. Consider yourself educated! This year’s theme at the expo is: “valuing manure and the environment.” According to the website, this is “the only trade show on the continent to focus specifically on manure management and application issues.” Strange as it may seem, manure really is big business. And actually, if you crunch some numbers maybe it’s not that strange at all. Consider the following data from the EPA: they estimate that an average 200 cow herd produces just over 24,000 pounds of urine and feces per day. If you’re raising beef cattle on an open range, this isn’t much of an issue, as the animal waste is spread naturally over the ground. But if you’re running a dairy, for example, and the cows are housed mostly in large barns between milkings, that twelve tons of waste has to go somewhere.That “somewhere” is where manure management kicks in. Many dairies have large pits called “lagoons” which are holding tanks for animal waste. Word has it that many a farmer has fallen into one over the years. Talk about your worst nightmare. These lagoons are emptied periodically, with the waste spread over crops as fertilizer. So, mark your calendars for July 8 and 9 for a family vacation to Springfield, Missouri. Who wouldn't want a free hat that said “MANURE MGT”? On 3/26/14 the U.S. Food and Drug Administration(FDA) released a list of companies and their antimicrobial products that will no longer be used for growth promotion and will require veterinary oversight for use in food animals shows that a voluntary program instituted by the FDA will benefit both animal and human health.
The FDA list comes after the agency released Final Guidance 213 last year that establishes a three-year time frame for phasing out growth-promotion uses of antibiotics important in human medicine and phasing in of veterinary oversight. The AVMA has long advocated that judicious use of antimicrobials and greater veterinary oversight on the farm benefit human and animal health. The FDA’s list serves as confirmation that the voluntary process is working and is effective. According to the FDA list, the 25 companies who intend to engage in the judicious use strategy by withdrawing approvals relating to any production uses and changing the status of their drugs from over-the-counter to use by veterinary feed directive or prescription hold 99.6 percent of the drug applications affected by Guidance 213. The FDA has said that they are encouraged by the response from these companies, and the AVMA is equally pleased to see that so many of these companies are willing to participate for the greater good of animals and people. The AVMA believes that veterinarians should strive to optimize the therapeutic efficacy of, and minimize resistance to, antimicrobials. The actions of the companies on this list reflect that position, and we believe these actions will benefit both animal and public health. For most pet owners, it is obvious that cats and dogs all have unique personalities and social quirks; that’s part of what makes them so endearing to have as companions. Perhaps most people realize that horses, although considered large animals, have their own personalities as well. But what about the quintessential livestock animal, the cow? Do these herd-oriented animals actually have personalities? Do they make friends? Do they hold grudges? As it turns out, the answer to all these questions is yes.
Over the past few decades, research into the behavior of cattle, especially dairy cattle, has shown these animals have a surprisingly complex social life. This, of course, is no news to the dairy farmer, who, through years of closely working with these animals day after day, knows which are the calm ones, which are the skittish ones, which get lonely, which are crafty, and which are just plain mean. And if you’re on good terms with these dairy farmers, they’ll usually let you know as you’re walking into the barn for an appointment which cow you’re getting ready to work on and if you’re going to have a good day or a bad day because of her. At the risk of sounding cynical, most of this research stems from devising ways to save money in the milking parlor. If cows are stressed, their milk production is affected, so can social change stress cows? Studies say yes. Once in a herd, cows develop a social hierarchy. There are even what are called “boss cows” at the apex of this social ladder. These are the cows that push their way through to the feed bunk no matter who is in their way and, sorry ladies, no one is getting seconds until these queens of the corral have had their fill. As you might imagine, it takes time for the intricacies of the social ladder to be worked out within a herd. If cows are moved from one barn to another frequently, this social stress can start to affect their well-being. Reestablishing who’s who in a crowd can lead to tension, stress, and the release of cortisol, the stress hormone that’s been shown to have detrimental effects on milk production. If cows are allowed to choose where they rest in a free-stall barn (a common type of dairy barn that has many different stalls where the cows themselves choose where to rest), they will choose to rest near acquaintances, not strangers. Boss cows will often rest near other boss cows, with the mid-level and bottom-level animals more commonly associating with others of their “class.” One study identified three different social structures within a dairy herd: a milking order, a leadership-followership pattern, and a dominance hierarchy, suggesting that the social dynamic isn’t just a social ladder, but rather a more complicated web. Social dynamics affect the order cows enter the milking parlor twice a day, who follows who in the field and around the barn, and who gets pushed out of the way when push comes to shove. An interesting side note, in case you were wondering, is that studies have shown that social dominance does not appear to influence milk production. A boss cow is just as likely to produce the same amount of milk as a lower-ranked cow in the herd. Instead, milk production is influenced much more by breed genetics (milk production of the parents, grandparents, etc.), health, type of diet, and overall farm management. So next time you happen to drive by a pastoral scene of green grass and happily grazing Holsteins, you might stop to consider the fact that all things may not be as peaceful as they seem. My conclusion from these studies is that dairy cows are prone to gossip. |
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