PROGRESSIVE PRODUCER

by University of California School of Veterinary Medicine Student Coral Alberi

30 California Cattleman June 2020

In February 2020, the Univeristy of California, Davis (UC Davis) School of Veterinary Medicine hosted its Beef Producer Symposium aimed at discussing issues facing beef producers today. A lecture on the foothill abortion, also known as Epizootic Bovine Abortion (EBA), given by veterinary immunologist Jeffrey Stott, Ph.D., was particularly interesting. Stott has played a very important role in the discovery of this disease and in the recent development of the vaccine. EBA causes approximately 65,000 abortions in cattle per year according to the Food and Agriculture News published by UC Davis in 2016. This article will provide you with a quick history and overview about EBA, including the transmission, pathogenesis and diagnosis of this elusive disease and an update about what is currently being done to prevent the devastating economic loss it causes.

EBA primarily occurs in California, Nevada and Oregon, and was first recognized as a threat to cattle production in the 1940s. The cause of the disease was not understood until the 1970s when researchers determined that EBA was caused by a soft shell tick. Many years passed before Stott and his team were able to determine that the causative agent was a microbe in 2002 and identify it as a bacteria in 2005. The bacteria was recently named Pajaroellobacter abortibovis after the Pajaroello tick that carries it. P. abortibovis does not grow in laboratory culture and replicates so slowly that it evaded researchers for years. The Pajaroello tick picks up these bacteria from an unknown source and resides in the earth near sage, bitter brush, piñon pines, junipers or oaks. When animals pass through these areas, the ticks are able to access and bite them to transfer the bacteria, a process that only takes them 15 to 20 minutes to accomplish. The ticks are most active during the warmer months, May through October, and can live over ten years through freezing temperatures. These hardy traits have made efforts to eradicate the disease through elimination of the tick or treating cattle with repellents expensive and ineffective. This is why UC Davis and the California Cattlemen’s Association have partnered to develop a vaccine.

EBA causes abortion in naive cattle (those who have not been previously exposed naturally or vaccinated and are therefore not protected). A cow with a healthy immune system will not show any signs of disease when infected with EBA, which has made tracking and treating it incredibly difficult. However, the fetuses of these infected cows are severely affected since their immune systems are not yet developed and they cannot fight the infection. To diagnose EBA, characteristic lesions must be found in the fetus. This can be especially difficult to do because the fetus must be greater than 100 days of gestation to have developed the lesions and it must be found, a virtually impossible task in the Veterinary immunologist Jeffrey Stott, Ph.D., has led efforts to characterize the bacteria that cause foothill abortion disease. He has also led field trial efforts to develop a vaccine for the common California disease. © UC DAVIS © SUCKOW

vast landscapesthat these cattle graze in. Blood tests on the cow to look for an immune response to the bacteria are useful in aiding diagnosis and exposure but are not confirmatory without the presence of the fetal lesions. The fetal lesions include markedly enlarged lymphoid organs and prescapular lymph nodes, hemorrhagic thymic lesions and a distended abdomen).

Because this bacteria cannot be cultured in laboratory, Stott and his team needed a live host to perpetuate and grow it. They took samples of infected tissues and injected them into laboratory mice who lacked an immune system so that the bacteria could grow and replicate. The infected tissues from those mice were then removed and cryopreserved (stored in liquid nitrogen) as the vaccine until thawing and administration to cattle. To be effective, the bacteria in the vaccine must be alive and able to reproduce in the host. This means that vaccine efficacy may be compromised in cattle concurrently being treated with antibiotics.

Vaccine field trials have been conducted on multiple ranches in California, Nevada and Oregon, totaling near 60,000 head of cattle. There have been no reported adverse effects to the vaccine other than localized swelling at the injection site. This swelling is indicative of an immune response. The vaccine has been proven to be 98 percent effective as long as vaccination is conducted a minimum of 60 days prior to breeding or past seven months (210 days) of gestation. If they are vaccinated in late gestation, it is possible that the calf will receive some immunity by birth. The withdrawal time for this vaccine is 90 days and trails are being administered by a veterinarian because handling this live vaccine correctly is so important to its efficacy and because its effects on people, especially pregnant women, are not completely known. The vaccine is projected to be commercially available at the end of 2020.

Once cattle have been infected, either naturally or through vaccination, they are protected by their immunological memory for a minimum of three years. Cattle that are in areas endemic to the Pajaroello tick and P. abortibovis will likely continue being bitten and exposed to the bacteria and will therefore maintain a robust immune response, making additional vaccinations unnecessary.

The end goal of all of this is to help eliminate the economic loss that EBA causes by introducing cattle to the bacteria at a time when the fetus is not at risk. This can be accomplished by natural means or, thanks to the efforts of Stott and his team, through the administration of the vaccine.

USDA now accepting Applications for Direct Payments to livestock producers

Earlier today, details of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced further details about the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program (CFAP). As noted in previous updates, CFAP will provide $16 billion in direct economic relief payments to farmers and ranchers suffering the market impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, with $5.1 billion of that relief earmarked for beef producers.

Applications for the program will be accepted starting next Tuesday, May 26. Given the program’s funding limitations, CCA encourages all members to start preparing their application information now and to contact their county Farm Service Agency (FSA) office without delay once the program opens next week.

The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) has shared the following information with us regarding eligibility and how to apply. For more details visit https:// www.farmers.gov/cfap/livestock. CCA will continue working with NCBA and USDA to ensure direct payments through the CFAP program provide meaningful assistance producers. ELIGIBLE LIVESTOCK:

CFAP assistance is available to livestock producers who have an ownership interest in eligible livestock that have suffered a five percent-or-greater price decline as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and face additional significant costs in marketing their inventories due to unexpected surplus and disrupted markets. A single payment for livestock will be calculated using the sum of the producer’s number of livestock sold between January 15 and April 15, 2020, multiplied by the payment rates per head, and the highest inventory number of livestock between April 16 and May 14, 2020, multiplied by the payment rate per head. all legal entities participating in CFAP. Unlike other FSA administered programs, special payment limitation rules will be applied to participants that are corporations, limited liability companies, and limited partnerships (corporate entities). These corporate entities may receive up to $750,000 based upon the number of shareholders (not to exceed three shareholders) who are contributing substantial labor or management with respect to the operation of the corporate entity. ADJUSTED GROSS INCOME (AGI):

To be eligible for a CFAP payment, a person or legal entity must: • Complete a CFAP application form and provide any required documentation (as specified in this final rule); and • Be a producer having a share in the eligible commodity between January 15, 2020, and April 15, 2020, or April 16, 2020, through May 14, 2020.

A person or legal entity, other than a joint venture or general partnership, is ineligible for payments if the person’s or legal entity’s average adjusted gross income (AGI), using the average of the adjusted gross incomes for the 2016, 2017 and 2018 tax years, is more than $900,000, unless at least 75 percent of that person’s or legal entity’s average AGI is derived from farming, ranching, or forestry-related activities. The AGI cap is waived for individuals who able to certify that more 75% or greater of their income is derived from agricultural production. HOW TO APPLY:

FSA will begin taking applications on Tuesday, May 26. Producers should expect to receive payments 7-10 days after the date of submission. At this point in time, USDA Service Centers are open for business by phone appointment only. Once the application period opens, producers should call their FSA county office to schedule an appointment. FSA has streamlined the signup process and will be working with producers by phone and using email, fax, mail and online tools like Box to accept applications.

32 California Cattleman June 2020 PAYMENT LIMITS:

CFAP payments are subject to a per person and legal entity payment limitation of $250,000. This limitation applies to the total amount of CFAP payments made with respect to all eligible commodities. Similar to the manner in which statutory payment limitations are applied in the major commodity and disaster assistance programs administered by FSA, payments will be attributed to an individual through the direct attribution process used in those programs. The total payment amount of CFAP payments attributed to an individual will be determined by taking into account the direct and indirect ownership interests of the individual in

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