BACKGROUND Both O157 and non-O157 Shiga toxin - producing Escherichia coli (STECs) cause serious human disease outbreaks through the consumption of contaminated foods. Cattle are considered the main reservoir but it is unclear how STECs affect mature animals. Neonatal calves are the susceptible age class for STEC infections causing severe enteritis. In an earlier study, we determined that mycot...

“Efficiency” is a poorly defined and generally overused term in livestock production. The segmentation present in the beef industry provides wide latitude for limited, and potentially conflicting, definitions and makes achievement of an industry-wide consensus on the definition of efficiency difficult. Much of what we believe today about efficiency of animal production was introduced by Dickers...

Lymphatic tissue, specifically lymph nodes, is commonly incorporated into ground beef products as a component of lean trimmings. Salmonella and other pathogenic bacteria have been identified in bovine lymph nodes, which may impact compliance with the Salmonella performance standards for ground beef established by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Although Salmonella prevalence has been exami...

this study describes the management and products of the gasconne cattle in two neighbouring countries (spainand france), as a model study in trans-border breeds, analysing if they are significantly different depending on the place where they are located. fifty-seven gasconne breeders were interviewed (32 inspainand 25 infrance). the survey examined several aspects of the productive farming syst...

Approximately 20% of the beef tonnage produced in the United States is derived from Holsteins, through harvested dairy beef or cull dairy cows (Randy Blach, Cattle-Fax, personal communication). This represents a significant contribution to the U.S. beef supply. More and more large commercial feed yards have seen the opportunity available with feeding Holstein steers. Inherent variation between ...

Paratuberculosis is endemic in domestic and wild ruminants worldwide. We designed the following study to compare host immune responses and pathologic changes in beef calves and bison calves after challenge with either a cattle or bison (Bison bison) strain of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. In the first part of the study, six bison and six beef calves were orally inoculated with a ...

The Fleckvieh breed, while internationally recognized as a dual-purpose breed is primarily used as a beef production animal in Ireland. However because of ever increasing pressure to improve efficiency, it is now accepted in Irish cattle breeding that beef production characteristics should be included in the national dairy cattle breeding programme. This development was accepted following a com...

Molecular or DNA sources of information represent a rapidly developing technology with regards to beef cattle selection. Given the rapid commercialization of DNA marker panels, producers have been able to see changes first hand in reporting styles, panel sizes, and traits for which panels are available. Ultimately, the power of this technology will only be fully exploited when it is seamlessly ...