Clinical Refresher: The Five Routes of Disease Transmission

March 23, 2020 | Volume 103

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WLIC Trivia

How many pounds of retail cuts will you get from a 1,000 lb steer?

See answer below!

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Clinical Refresher: The Five Routes of Disease Transmission

The situation surrounding COVID-19 changes on a daily, and even hourly, basis is the U.S. While there’s currently no evidence that this particular strain of coronavirus will affect cattle, biological risk management is still important for the people working on farms and ranches and for preventing the spread of illness between them. Best practices include frequent hand washing, avoiding close contact between people and staying home if you feel sick, the CDC says .

“It is important to clarify that COVID-19 and the bovine coronavirus are very different viruses,” says Dr. A.J. Tarpoff, assistant professor and extension specialist at Kansas State University. “The corona virus family is a huge family of viruses. Each of the viruses typically only affect individual species. So it would not be expected at all for the COVID-19 to circulate or have any health effect on our cattle herds.”

In the News

Coronavirus Prevention & Control for Farms

The U.S. is confronting an outbreak of a novel coronavirus that causes serious respiratory disease and may be deadly for older people and those with weakened immune systems.

The World Health Organization is now calling the outbreak a global pandemic because it is affecting countries all over the world. People and organizations can still fight coronavirus by taking steps to prevent transmission of the disease, the whole point of widespread cancellation of events is to create “social distancing” to lower the infection rate and prevent health care systems from being overwhelmed.

Wisconsin Beef Advocate Program Launches

Masters of Beef Advocacy is your go-to program for training and resources to be a strong advocate for the beef community. This free, self-guided online course provides farmers, ranchers, service providers, consumers, and all members of the beef community the tools and resources to become a beef advocate and answer tough questions about beef and raising cattle.

China Announces Step Forward on African Swine Fever Vaccine

The world may be one step closer to a workable vaccine for African swine fever (ASF), but one expert warns that a local debut is a long way off — if the vaccine makes it to Canada at all.

According to a research article, recently published in a Chinese science journal, researchers out of the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute have developed a vaccine that they say is safe and effective in lab conditions.

The paper describes the vaccine as a live attenuated vaccine based on one of the first ASF strains to be found in China.

Trivia Answer

430 lbs. Retail Cuts from a 1,000 lb steer. Not all of the cow makes it to the table. On average, a 1,000 pound steer will only weigh approximately 61% of it’s live weight once it makes it to the rail. This approximate 39% loss during the slaughter and dressing procedure is a result of the animal being bled and the hide, head, hooves, viscera, lungs and heart being removed. The remaining 61% is often referred to as the “Hanging Weight” or the weight “On the Rail”.