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Johne’s Disease: Cheap to Buy, Costly to Live With

August 15, 2019

This article written by Dr. Reynold Bergen, BCRC Science Director, originally appeared in the August 2019 issue of Canadian Cattlemen magazine and is reprinted on the BCRC Blog with permission of the publisher. “Biosecurity” often conjures up images of poultry or hog operations with truckers-report-at-the-gate signs, shower-in-and-out rules, and workers dressed in hazmat suits. The point of biosecurity practices is obviously to reduce the risk that disease causing microbes will enter or spread within high-health status herds or flocks.It is much harder to implement high levels of biosecurity in beef operations. I’ve heard a cynic say that biosecurity only prevents diseases that are too big to fit between two strands of barbed wire. I stopped saying that when someone pointed out that most diseases aren’t coming through the fence. Most diseases are bought and paid for and come straight through an open gate along with the newly purchased cattle that are carrying them. Let’s use J....
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Dr. John Campbell receives 2019 Canadian Beef Industry Award for Outstanding Research and Innovation

August 14, 2019

This article written by Dr. Reynold Bergen, BCRC Science Director, originally appeared in the August 2019 issue of Canadian Cattlemen magazine and is reprinted on the BCRC Blog with permission of the publisher. “Biosecurity” often conjures up images of poultry or hog operations with truckers-report-at-the-gate signs, shower-in-and-out rules, and workers dressed in hazmat suits. The point of biosecurity practices is obviously to reduce the risk that disease causing microbes will enter or spread within high-health status herds or flocks.It is much harder to implement high levels of biosecurity in beef operations. I’ve heard a cynic say that biosecurity only prevents diseases that are too big to fit between two strands of barbed wire. I stopped saying that when someone pointed out that most diseases aren’t coming through the fence. Most diseases are bought and paid for and come straight through an open gate along with the newly purchased cattle that are carrying them. Let’s use J....
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