In order to obtain data concerning the involvement of Mannheimia haemolytica in bovine respiratory disease (BRD) outbreaks, a serological survey was carried out on paired (acuteconvalescent) sera from 1310 beef and 810 dairy cattle collected in 262 BRD outbreaks in Italian herds during 2002-2006. No vaccination program to M. haemolytica A1 was applied in the investigated herds. For each outbrea...

an annual rate of 7 percent since 1986 with 371 million broilers produced in 1994. Broiler litter (mixture of poultry excreta, bedding material, wasted feed and feathers) is usually removed from the poultry houses on an annual basis. Because of its high nutrient content, poultry litter is usually applied to agricultural land as fertilizer with an economic value of $20 to $30/ton. Broiler litter...

The U.S. beef cattle industry has been a major consumer of wet and dried corn distiller’s byproducts for decades. As a result, there has been considerable research conducted to evaluate the feeding value of corn distiller’s by-products to cattle. Most of the research is related to feeding distiller’s grains to finishing beef cattle. Several excellent research summaries and feeding recommendatio...

F beef cattle management practices are more cost effective or have a higher return on investment than properly used growth promoting implants. Growth promoting implants are pellets that are implanted under the skin of the ear of growing calves. These pellets release extremely low concentrations of various hormones, which improve average daily gain 7 to 17 percent and feed efficiency 4 to 12 per...

Beef carcass contamination is a direct result of pathogen transfer from cattle hides harboring organisms such as enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli. Hide contamination occurs from direct and indirect fecal contamination in cattle production and lairage environments. In each of these environments, individual animals shedding E. coli O157:H7 at high levels (>10(4) CFU/g of feces, hereafter referr...

Campylobacter are important human foodborne pathogens known to colonize the gastrointestinal tract of cattle. The incidence of Campylobacter in cattle may be seasonal and may vary among age groups and type (beef versus dairy). Less is known about other factors that could influence the prevalence, colonization site, and shedding of Campylobacter in cattle. The objectives of this study were to ev...

AIM The mammalian intestinal microflora has been shown to impact host physiology. In cattle, intestinal bacteria are also associated with faecal contamination of environmental sources and human illness via foodborne pathogens. Use of wet distillers' grains with solubles (WDGS) in cattle feed creates a gastrointestinal environment where some bacterial species are enriched. Here, we examine if a ...

Samples of longissimus (LT) and infraspinatus (IS) muscles from five contrasting groups of pasture-finished cattle (n=7/group) were assessed for quality and composition characteristics in order to determine whether features of pasture-finished beef reported previously apply across different muscles and different classes of cattle. The cattle were not raised together or slaughtered at the same t...

The NRC (1996) changed from the factorial protein system to a metabolizable protein (MP) system for beef cattle. In the MP system, dietary crude protein (CP) is subdivided into degraded intake protein (DIP) and undegraded intake protein (UIP). The quantity of microbial protein produced in the rumen dictates DIP requirements. Steam-flaked corn is the predominant grain used in the diets of finish...

The study reported here evaluated genotype × environment interaction in individual performance and progeny tests in beef cattle. Genetic parameters for final weight (FW), ADG, and scrotal circumference (SC) of 33,013 Nellore young bulls tested on pasture or in feedlots were analyzed. The posterior means (and highest posterior density interval with 90% of samples [HPD90]) of heritability for tra...