Livestock health management
First Claim
1. A method of prophylactic screening of a population of livestock containing subclinical persistently infected animals comprising the steps of:
- receiving samples obtained from identified individual animals to be screened;
providing aliquots of the samples;
combining aliquots of the samples to form pooled samples;
testing the pooled samples for presence of a pathogen;
identifying the pooled samples that are pathogen positive, thereby identifying a subset of putative positive samples;
testing aliquots from the putative positive samples to produce a set of pathogen positive samples, identifying the individual animals that provided the pathogen positive samples, thereby identifying subclinical pathogen positive individual animals within the population of livestock, and reporting the test results about twelve to about twenty-four hours after the samples after receiving the samples.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides methods for managing livestock to improve performance and health of the general livestock population by reducing the impact of subclinical animals persistently infected with a contagious disease by separating animals into arrival groups, screening all animals for the pathogen of the contagious disease, promptly removing the pathogen positive animals from the general livestock population and feeding and managing the pathogen negative animals and pathogen positive animals separately. In preferred embodiments, the pathogen positive animals are removed from their arrival group within about 1.5-3 days after arrival. In preferred embodiments, the method of the present invention is applied in a cattle operation such as a seedstock operation, a cow-calf operation, a stocker operation, a backgrounding operation, a feedlot operation, a dairy operation, a farm of origin, such as a dairy farm, an auction facility, a gathering point or a buyer facility.
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Citations
19 Claims
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1. A method of prophylactic screening of a population of livestock containing subclinical persistently infected animals comprising the steps of:
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receiving samples obtained from identified individual animals to be screened;
providing aliquots of the samples;
combining aliquots of the samples to form pooled samples;
testing the pooled samples for presence of a pathogen;
identifying the pooled samples that are pathogen positive, thereby identifying a subset of putative positive samples;
testing aliquots from the putative positive samples to produce a set of pathogen positive samples, identifying the individual animals that provided the pathogen positive samples, thereby identifying subclinical pathogen positive individual animals within the population of livestock, and reporting the test results about twelve to about twenty-four hours after the samples after receiving the samples. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method of improving the performance and health of cattle in a cattle operation, comprising the steps of:
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keeping the cattle separated by source in arrival groups;
performing prophylactic screening of all cattle for the presence of bovine viral diarrhea virus;
removing bovine viral diarrhea virus positive animals from the arrival groups within about 1.5 to about 3 days after arrival in the cattle operation; and
feeding and managing the bovine viral diarrhea virus negative animals. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 16, 17, 18, 19)
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14. (canceled)
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15. (canceled)
Specification