XLVets Ireland has said there was an 80% increase in reports of calf birth defects in the first two months of 2024 when compared with the same period last year.
Data provided by vets through a purpose-built app and dashboard shows that 36 cases were detected in January and February, up from 20 a year previously.
The highest increase of defect was in Schistosomus, with 9 detections, up from four in the first two months of 2023.
Schistosomus occurs when the calf is born with its internal organs on the outside.
Mike Curran, chief executive of XLVets Ireland, said that the information is collected across its membership of 190 vets.
“This season has been really interesting because we’ve seen a higher case of Schistosomus being reported, and also Schmallenberg,” he told Agriland.
Although there has been an notable increase in the detections of birth defects in calves, Curran said he would not be concerned at this stage.
“I think let the season go through because we may be seeing a spike earlier on and we may see that dip off as the season progresses.
“We’re comparing month-on-month, year-on-year just to see can we see any differences. 80% sounds like a high number, but it is off a low number of reported cases overall.
“When we get through March’s data and April, it will give a good indicator on if we seeing a true seasonal lift in reported cases or does average out over the season.
“I will leave it a couple of more weeks before we make any judgment call on it,” he said.
Calf birth defects
The project was launched in 2020 following discussions within the XLVets Ireland Farm Animal Committee, chaired by Donal Murphy which reported that there was a noticeable increase in bovine birth defects.
In response, XLVets developed a dashboard and app for data collection by vets on the ground in spring 2021.
“The simplicity of this and the reason it’s working is we actually did it with the vet in mind. Being busy on farm, the last thing they want to be doing is taken aside to complete another task or input data.
“The app is designed to be usable with one finger on a phone while you could be doing something else and easily input in a very short period of time , but again it’s the richness of what is being inputed,” Curran said.
Vets
XLVets, which is a network of independently owned veterinary practices, sought to improve the initial dataset by engaging with Prof. John Mee from Teagasc.
Last November, a paper entitled “Bovine congenital defects recorded by veterinary practitioners”, which was co-authored by Prof. Mee and XLVets, was peer reviewed and published.
Mike Curran said that that the plan is to continuing developing the project with case photos and clinical notes.
He said that the dashboard is firstly a point of information, but can also help vets and farmers with preventative plans and act as a learning tool for students within farming and vets themselves.
“The real outward potential is if we map this over a number of seasons, can we start to see trends linked with weather or blooms of certain bacteria? So that will be quite interesting and it’s something that we’re going to continue working on,” he said.