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Faunsdale, AL | There’s a LOT of cattle that are positive for BLV that aren’t showing any symptoms now and will never show any. I’ll say that the vast majority of positive cattle will never show any symptoms.
Note, I’m not saying you don’t need to worry about bovine leukemia virus infection! Don’t get me wrong. It’s something you need to prevent the spread of in your herd and when buying expensive cattle, it would be best to only consider test negative stock. Unfortunately it has always been most prevalent in herds with intensive management.
Still it can never be the top differential for most symptoms other than big lymph nodes or obvious tumors. Those symptoms…..yeah, it’s most likely the cause.
Everything else, have to eliminate other causes. Bulls can have traumatic injury to spine or hips etc. I think I would like a post mortem to confirm. But note that getting access to the spine will require some equipment that’s usually only available in a slaughter facility.
Your vet is probably correct, but I wouldn’t pull the plug on him yet. Not going to slaughter for human consumption so no reason to rush to market him. Give him a little time. You’re not out of anything more than you’ve already lost.
Edited by ccjersey 1/20/2024 00:41
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Bull with problems, bovine leukosis?
