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Pinkeye In 2014
ELDON COLE
MT. VERNON, MO.
2014 has been a terrible pinkeye year in this area. If your herd has escaped, consider yourself very lucky. It seems pinkeye cycles and this must have been the year we peaked on the infection rate. Vaccination, pasture clipping, antibiotic use and fly control didn’t seem to phase it. Cultures by some veterinarians revealed a different bacterial infection than the usual Moraxella bovis. I know problems started sooner in the late winter and early spring.
Perhaps this year’s bad eye year will impart some natural immunity for the next few years. One thing is certain, the eye infection, whatever it was, has wiped out a bunch of Show-Me-Select potential heifers for the coming year. ∆
ELDON COLE: Extension Livestock Specialist, University of Missouri
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