Who will regulate the profession under a new Veterinary Surgeons Act?

A resolution by the Council of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in March has set the College on the road towards achieving regulation for all groups of people providing veterinary services, not just veterinary surgeons. Here, Mr Roger Eddy, chairman of the RCVS working party on a new Veterinary Surgeons Act, discusses some of the options being considered by the College, and seeks views on an appropriate way forward

An economic assessment of twin births in British dairy herds.

The effect of twinning on the subsequent health, production and reproductive performance of dairy cattle was studied by analysing the data derived from 19,755 calvings which occurred during three years on 37 farms. The data formed part of the database of a veterinary practice operating the DAISY dairy cow recording scheme for its dairy farmer clients. The average twinning rate was 2.5 per cent. For first calf heifers the rate was 0.9 per cent, and the rate increased with increasing parity to over 5 per cent for cows calving for their sixth and subsequent lactations. Although they produced more milk than their contemporaries, twin-bearing cows suffered an increased incidence of retained placenta and vulval discharges and their calving to conception interval was extended by 33 days. Furthermore, 35 per cent of these cows were culled compared with 21 per cent of their contemporaries. The benefit of having more calves for sale was reduced owing to 15 per cent of them being born dead. It is calculated that producing twins resulted in an average loss of income of 74 pounds/cow, a deficit of 15 per cent compared with cows having single calves.

Behaviour of cows in cubicles and its possible relationship with laminitis in replacement dairy heifers.

The behaviour of cows in cubicles was studied in two dairy herds which were under the same ownership and had similar buildings and management systems. One of the herds had an annual problem of lameness due to laminitis leading to solar ulceration in the replacement first lactation heifers. There were considerable behavioural differences between the cows in the two herds. In the problem herd the heifers and cows stood for significantly longer, more heifers were seen not to use the cubicles, and there were more examples of aberrant behaviour than in the other herd. Less straw was used for cubicle bedding in the problem herd and when the amount used was increased to one bale per 10 cows per day no new cases of laminitis and solar ulceration occurred in the heifers.

Oestrus prediction in dairy cows using an ELISA progesterone test.

The commercially available test kit for assaying milk progesterone was used in the practice laboratory on samples taken daily from cows 17 to 24 days after service. Improved oestrus detection rates and accuracy were achieved by predicting the onset of oestrus. Similar results were obtained by sampling on days 18, 20, 22 and 24 or on days 19, 21 and 23 after service. Calving to conception intervals improved from 115 to 84 days in one herd and from 85 to 74 days in another and the potential economic benefits in these two herds outweighed the costs by 7.4:1 and 3.4:1, respectively.

Some observations on the incidence of lameness in dairy cattle in Somerset.

A three year study of practice records of lame cows and meteorological data on rainfall suggests a correlation between rainfall and incidence of lameness in dairy cattle. Over a 12 month period requests to treat lameness in 1256 cattle were received by one six-person practice and were the subject of a detailed survey. The incidence on the 150 farms where lameness was recorded was 7.33 per cent, 92.2 per cent of lameness occurring in the foot. White line disease (34.9 per cent), pricked sole (20.4 per cent), foul in the foot (14.3 per cent) ulcerated sole (11.4 per cent), and foreign body (4.8 per cent) accounted for 85.8 per cent of the 927 recorded foot lesions. Hind feet lameness appeared more common in older cows, but this was not shown to be the case with front foot lameness. Lameness also appeared to be most common in early lactation and of relatively low incidence in the dry period. The seasonal distribution differed between the lesions, ulcerated sole being more common February to May, foul in the foot and white line separation in the autumn, and white line abscess and pricked sole in the autumn and winter months.