An Industry-Wide Approach to Addressing Congestive Heart Failure in Cattle
Reducing losses will take effort from all segments of the beef industry.
Decades of improvements in cattle feed efficiency and carcass characteristics had a hidden drawback. Along with positive traits, producers were unknowingly selecting for attributes that led to an increased prevalence of bovine congestive heart failure (BCHF).
BCHF was once thought to be a concern for high altitude operations, but it is now commonly seen across the country. Combating losses from this heritable condition will require cooperation across industry segments.
Long-term change
One of the largest cattle feeders in the United States has been leading the charge into identifying cases of BCHF, funding research, into genetic traits associated with the syndrome and making those results public to the industry.
“We were seeing an escalating mortality rate in our feedyards that was nonresponsive to therapies we were trying to put into place,” said Randall Raymond, DVM, director of research and veterinary services for Simplot. “It was associated with periods of heat stress, usually from June to September. Around the same time, we became partners in a new meat plant in Idaho that allowed us access to cattle and the ability to evaluate heart and lung pathology on a large scale.”
Simplot provided samples of confirmed cases of BCHF and worked with Gencove to build and validate a new expected progeny difference (EPD) that could be used by cattle breeders to screen for the trait. The EPD is now commercially available to producers through the commercial cattle genomics provider Neogen or directly through Simplot Livestock’s genetics team.
“The heritability of the syndrome is about as high as any we deal with,” Raymond said. “The ability of the genetic prediction model to remove animals from the population through sire selection and identify females that are drivers – that could take years, maybe a decade to really change the landscape.”
In addition to the slow pace, BCHF also is highly correlated with economically important traits like carcass weight, average daily gain and feed intake. Traits for BCHF are prevalent across breeds but tend to have a higher prevalence in English type breeds.
Short-term management
In Simplot’s largest feedyard, mortality rates from BCHF can be up to 1% of cattle, amounting to huge losses. To reduce losses, Simplot developed an aggressive identification program. Cattle identified with signs of the syndrome are immediately shipped to a nearby packing plant, which is a strategy not available to all feedyards.
Simplot pen riders look for signs, such as:
- Swelling under the mandible and brisket
- A wide stance with abducted elbows
- Increased respiratory rates
- A sway in the back
- Exercise intolerance
“It’s a large part of our population,” Raymond said. “We really think of it as a stress response. Cattle will try to compensate until they can’t oxygenate. One percent is a really a big number. Part of the reason we’ve seen mortality rise is that it looks like a respiratory syndrome and managing around respiratory disease is an ineffective tool for cattle with BCHF.”
Tools in development
Identifying cattle at high risk for BCHF on arrival could help reduce losses from the syndrome as well. Currently, testing and obtaining lab results takes too long to implement as a screening strategy, Raymond says.
“Out of all the research we’ve done, it’s clear the genetic modeling has the best ability to make change,” he said. “We’re going to publish anything we learn on this concept because we can’t change this on our own.”
References:
1 Buchanan JW, Flagel LE, MacNeil MD, et al. Variance component estimates, phenotypic characterization, and genetic evaluation of bovine congestive heart failure in commercial feeder cattle. Front Genet. 2023;14:1148301. doi:10.3389/fgene.2023.1148301.
Key Points
- High altitude disease, or brisket disease, is a closely related complex of symptoms that may result in congestive heart failure in cattle at elevations greater than 1,600 meters.1
- BCHF is currently widespread at lower elevations.
- Identification of clinical signs and emergency harvesting is one route to mitigate losses.
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