Brucellosis - an update

Authors: Wallace GV
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 34, Issue 12, pp 220, Dec 1986
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Cattle, Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant
Subject Terms: Abortion/stillbirth, Bacterial, Biosecurity, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Disease control/eradication, Epidemiology, Notifiable organisms/exotic disease, Reproduction, Reproduction - female, Zoonosis, Public health
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: Following on from my letter in the November 1986 issue of this Journal may I add that the September 1986 tally for the herd involved was 26 reactors. I understand that the herd will be quarantined and slaughtered at the end of the season as the Ministry does not pay loss of production and the farmer has suffered enough already. My main concern has been not just the farmer nor whether indeed the problem was undiagnosed brucellosis in 1985, but that had he continued with calfhood vaccination he would not be in his present disastrous situation coping with a challenge from an unknown source. Let me elaborate on this. The Ministry has laboured the point, again recently expressed by Dr O`Hara in his letter to veterinarians making vaccination illegal after June 1987, that we will have three years “immunity” as a carry-over, also recently agreed by Professor Morris. I would totally agree with them had I the belief that up to 100% of eligible female calves had been vaccinated right up to this point in time. The case I report refutes that assumption and even if it were true farm-wise I would not be hopeful that all calves on any one farm had been mustered in run-off situations. I do not doubt that we will eventually achieve what the Ministry expects but there will be more “hiccups” along the way with which Dr O`Hara and I appear to be in agreement.

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