Poor Thrift Flashcards
What is poor thrift?
- failrue to acheive target weight gain at a certain age
OR - very low BCS
When are most thrift problems identified?
Slaughter time - most farmers do not routinely weigh
Why is poor thrift important in young animals?
Even small ^ weight gain can be economically important in herds of large number
Why is poor thrift in adults a problem?
> economic cost if thin at key times of year eg.
- mating: ^ anaeostrus length, v concenption, v ovulation
- early preg: v placental development
- late preg ^ metabolic disease
- lactation: v milk production
welfare
What are the 2 methods of assessing thrift in adults and how effective are they?
- weighing - also affected by age, breeed, gut fill, stage of production cycle
- BCS - cattle, sheep, goats, alpaca, 1-5 scale
horses and cattle sometimes 1-9 scale
What is the logical approach to assessing weight loss in a herd setting?
- Whole group affected or only some?
- Appetite normal?
- (if yes => a) Nutrition adequate?
- (if no => b) Cant wat/wont eat?
4a. (if yes) maldigestion, malabsorption eg. parasitism, johnes, tumours
4a. (if no) underfeeding or trace element deficiency
4b. cant eat - dental disease or lamenss
4b. wont eat - parasitism
What is the main cause of poor thrift in the whole herd? (± normal apetitie and adequate nutrition)
Maldigestion or malaabsorption due to parasitism
- nemotodes, liver flukes or coccidiosis
What is the main cause of poor thrift in a few animals (normal appetite, adequate nutiriton)
- johnes
- tumours
- chronic disease eg. pnumonia
What 2 forms of under feeding may be occouring?
- Amount and quality
2. Trace element deficiency (grazing aniamls rely on soil/plant levels, usually whole group affected)
What is the most common cause of whole herd “wont eat” weight loss in grazing animals? What is the problem with this?
GI parasitism - nematodes
> appetitie resuctino usually not noticed by farmer!
What is the most common causes when a few individuals “cant eat” ?
- Dental disease (usually only adults)
- lameness
How can poor thrift be defined?
- numbers eg. weight loss daily, time to slaughter
- age/groups affected
- no. animals affected
- severity
How can poor thrift problem be refined?
- whole group/subgroup
- nutirtion adequate?
What is the problem of older sheep losing incisors termed?
Broken mouth
What aspects of the history are important when looking at poor thrift?
- farming system, feed management
- time of calving/lambing and weaning
- reproductive rate and spread
- worming regime and anthelmintics
- previous TE problems, supplements
- observations of clinical signs
