Are the Australian poultry industries vulnerable to large outbreaks of highly pathogenic avian influenza?

Objective   To describe the structure of the Australian poultry industry and discuss the potential for highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) to spread between Australian poultry farms.
Procedure   High densities of poultry farms, frequent contacts between farms by service providers, the supply of live poultry markets (LPM) and the presence of free-range duck flocks in affected regions have been identified as risk factors for the spread of HPAI between flocks in outbreaks causing the death or destruction of over 1 million poultry overseas. Data on 1,594 commercial Australian chicken meat, chicken egg, duck and turkey farms were collected by a telephone questionnaire of farm managers to assess the risk of a HPAI outbreak in Australia.
Results and Discussion   Five regions of Australia had farm densities comparable to overseas regions that experienced widespread HPAI. Common service providers routinely contacted different classes and types of farms over wide geographic areas. However, no responding farms supplied LPM and the majority of duck farms did not produce free-range ducks.
Conclusion   Outbreaks of HPAI have the potential to cause serious impacts on the Australian poultry industry. The risk posted by LPM and free-range ducks is limited, but the movement of genetic stock and common service providers could spread infection between companies, industries or geographical regions. Biosecurity measures are therefore considered critical to limit the secondary spread of infection should an outbreak occur.     

Effects of increasing days of exposure to prepartum diets on the concentration of certain blood metabolites in dairy cows

Objective To evaluate the effect of the number of days exposure to a prepartum transition diet on mineral, energy and protein metabolism in dairy cows. Design A prospective cohort study. Procedures The prepartum transition diet consisted of ryegrass pasture, cereal hay, grain, grain by-product, protein meals, BioChlor®, rumen modifiers, minerals and vitamins and contained 13.9% crude protein, 10.0 MJ metabolisable energy/kg and a dietary cation anion difference of −35 meq/kg dry matter. Forty cows were bled bi-weekly from their introduction to the prepartum transition diet until day 35 of lactation. Blood samples were submitted for estimation of a range of metabolites. Cubic smoothed splines were fitted to scatterplots of metabolite concentration as a function of day relative to calving and the area under the curve (AUC) was calculated. Linear regression modelling determined the effect of days exposed, age, body condition score (BSC) and calving day on AUC. Results The prepartum AUC of blood phosphorus and beta-hydroxybutyrate increased and the AUC of blood calcium and cholesterol decreased with increasing days exposed to the diet. The postpartum AUC of beta-hydroxybutyrate and non-esterified fatty acids decreased with increasing days exposed but increased with days exposed × age and days exposed × BCS, respectively. The AUC of other metabolites did not vary significantly with number of days exposed. Conclusions Increasing exposure to the prepartum diet significantly altered the AUC of blood metabolites associated with mineral, energy and protein metabolism in ways consistent with improvements in production and reproduction previously reported and the result suggests links between energy, protein and skeletal metabolism.     

Clostridial myocarditis in lambs

Five outbreaks of myocarditis were investigated in young sheep. They occurred during late winter and spring when there was lush growth of pasture following a prolonged period of drought. Clinically the disease was characterised by sudden death and pathological findings were dominated by acute multifocal locally extensive necrotising and haemorrhagic myocarditis. A fluorescent antibody technique was used to demonstrate the presence of Clostridium chauvoei in paraffin embedded sections of myocardium from 4 of the outbreaks.     

Management of land and livestock contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls

Investigations were conducted on several small neighbouring beef cattle and sheep farms that were found to be contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs). The residues detected contained about 62% w/w chlorine and soil concentrations ranged from 0.35 to 1.9 mg/kg. Beef cattle and sheep grazing the contaminated land had PCB concentrations in their fat of 0.3 to 1.7 mg/kg and 0.19 to 0.45 mg/kg, respectively. The concentration of PCBs in the caudal fat of cattle was 0.3 to 2 times the concentration of PCBs in the land they were grazing and was positively related to stocking rates. PCBs were present in milk fat from cattle at about the same concentration as in caudal fat, and lactation appeared to contribute to decontamination. Wool grease from sheep contained about 1 to 2 times the concentration of PCBs in subcutaneous fat. Calves of contaminated cows also became contaminated. The half-life for decontamination of PCBs in a group of 8 young female beef cattle was calculated at 13 months. PCBs were detected in pasture samples at concentrations ranging from less than 0.01 mg/kg to 0.12 mg/kg. However, PCBs were not detected in any sample of hay cut from these paddocks. In 4 sheep fed a sole ration of this hay, traces of PCBs were detected in their fat following 89 days of feeding. Grazing livestock for meat production on land contaminated with PCBs is not recommended because livestock readily acquire residues, and PCBs persist in soil and livestock for long periods. Grazing sheep for wool production on land contaminated with PCBs may be an option.