Outbreaks of infectious disease have shown that it pays to be conscientious about preventing and controlling infectious
disease on livestock operations. This concept is known as biosecurity. Biosecurity refers to management practices that
reduce the chances infectious diseases will be carried onto the farm by animals or people. Biosecurity also reduces the
spread of infectious disease on farms.
Deep nasopharyngeal swabs have been validated as a viable alternative to trans-tracheal wash or bronchial-alveolar lavage in cases of bovine respiratory disease and are superior to nasal swabs especially for Mycoplasma bovis.1,2 The technique is simple and safe to perform and is very reliable.
File: CL-Res-11-Use-of-Deep-Nasopharyngeal-Swabs.pdfWVDL primarily uses the broth microdilution method for antimicrobial susceptibility testing, although
the Kirby Bauer, disk diffusion, method is still employed when needed.
High bacterial numbers in milk, calf milk replacer (CMR) or colostrum can adversely affect the health and well being of dairy calves
File: CL-Res-8-Colostrum-and-Waste-Milk-Interpretation-Guidelines.pdfBacterial Culture of Colostrum, Calf Milk Replacer (CMR) and Waste Milk
Sampling Instructions
The best samples are collected within 4-8 hours of death, but it’s difficult to predict which cases will
be diagnostic. Please collect both fresh and formalin-fixed tissues from any organ that has gross
lesions.