Volume 12: Livestock Farming
8. Cattle diseases and their control and management on farm
Introduction

8.1 There is some doubt about the extent to which BSE cases, particularly in the early days, might not have been reported to the vet or to the local Veterinary Investigation Centre, since BSE symptoms resembled those of other diseases familiar to cattle farmers. When the first BSE cases occurred, the symptoms led many vets to consider a diagnosis of hypomagnesaemia, a metabolic disorder. This chapter describes the main cattle diseases encountered by UK farmers, some of which affect the nervous system and have similar symptoms to BSE. It also discusses the avoidance of disease from fallen animals, and the spreading of waste onto pastures. Chapter 9 discusses infectious diseases which have been made notifiable, and whose control and eradication is coordinated at national level through the Agriculture Departments.