TB and slurry v's dung.

Floki

We've always been straw bedding here but may not be so in the near future as tillage land converts over to grass.
Anyways I digress.

Luckily touch wood, praise be to God, Allah, Buddah, Joe Duffy we've never had an incidence of TB on the farm even though all my neighbours have been down at some stage and they are all slurry and cubicle farmers.

I know another few cases in the county of straw bedding farmers who never went down when neighbours who spread slurry repeatedly go down.

Is this a thing or has anyone else noticed a seemingly biase for tb to strike a slurry farm over a dung farm?

I have a few theories if it's the case.

GrasstoMilk

All dung here and haven't had a case of tb in a very long time.
Wouldn't have much faith in your hunch though, 2 neighbours went down recently and they're all straw bedded aswell. Although they are suckler herds though

PoorFarmer

All slurry here and never went down but 3 neighbours have. Closed herd though so I think that makes the difference

Floki

PoorFarmer wrote: »

All slurry here and never went down but 3 neighbours have. Closed herd though so I think that makes the difference

Ah it definitely makes a difference.
Lessens the risk anyway.

I would be mostly closed here too bar a bull or two.

Floki

GrasstoMilk wrote: »

All dung here and haven't had a case of tb in a very long time.
Wouldn't have much faith in your hunch though, 2 neighbours went down recently and they're all straw bedded aswell. Although they are suckler herds though

I won't lie to you, your herd was one of the free herds using straw I was thinking of.

Another bit of inspiration for the thread came from this....
https://www.google.ie/amp/s/www.organicfacts.net/health-benefits/minerals/health-benefits-of-silicon.html%3fisamp=1

Straw is full of silicon, a lot more than silage. I think?
Depends on the land too I suppose but anyways this is all the genesis of the thread.

Lady Haywire

Similar to you Floki we've never gone down but only use slurry (the little straw bedding we'd use goes to the veg patch). Would have a predominately closed herd too though bar the odd one that catches the eye.

Would there ever be cross-contamination between herds if a slurry tanker wasn't cleaned? Or would it just be really really bad luck!

Floki

Lady Haywire wrote: »

Would there ever be cross-contamination between herds if a slurry tanker wasn't cleaned? Or would it just be really really bad luck!

Anything's possible I suppose.

moneyheer

Closed herd here, use slurry and dung here, went down with t.v. in October 11 -November 12,
down again March 13 - to September 13 approx,
then down again October 14 until April 15.
Only reason can think of is that all animals that went down we're on a farm I had rented at the time.

Mooooo

Floki wrote: »

Ah it definitely makes a difference.
Lessens the risk anyway.

I would be mostly closed here too bar a bull or two.

Haven't bought an animal in 5 years, still gett8ng locked up

Farmer

A possible link I could see with slurry would be the ponding that can occur with heavy slurry usage and this stagnant water being shared with infected badgers or deer and cattle

My first piece of advice to anyone affected would be to drain out any stagnant water on the farm and also to be conscious about badger access to points where concentrates are being fed

I'm not totally blaming the badgers, we don't want to spread it to them either.

tractorporn

Floki wrote:

Ah it definitely makes a difference. Lessens the risk anyway.

moneyheer wrote:

Closed herd here, use slurry and dung here, went down with t.v. in October 11 -November 12, down again March 13 - to September 13 approx, then down again October 14 until April 15. Only reason can think of is that all animals that went down we're on a farm I had rented at the time.

Closed herd here. We were depopulated in 94 and 97 with Tb rates of over 50% of the herd. It would be rare that we would go 18 months without a reactor. Department have done surveys of our farm and the best they could come up with is that granddad buried a beast that died from Tb years ago and that it's leaching into the water. Which I don't believe cos neighbours are not nearly as badly affected as ourselves.

Never wrestle with pigs

Wouldn't land that is spread with dung have more worms so more food for badgers supposedly?

Big farms with less cover for badgers should have less??

How long can one carry TB before it's strong enough to react?

Can one carry and spread the disease but not actually be affected by it itself?

Is there any info out to say what % of reactors are actually infected?

Could cross contamination occur trough meal? Badgers have a feed in a barley field and you get it back trough meal?

Sorry it's all questions 😂

ganmo

Farmer wrote: »

I'm not totally blaming the badgers, we don't want to spread it to them either.

Ya have to leave room for deer too