STD found in southeast NM cattle

A sexually transmitted disease found in cattle has been identified in southeast New Mexico and could have potentially devastating effects on the herds of area ranches, and cattle producers are being called on to join together to combat the problem. Trichomoniasis, or "trich", is a venereal disease of cattle that does not make bulls or cows outwardly sick, but which results in the loss of reproductive efficiency of affected herds, said John Wenzel, New Mexico State University extension veterinarian. "The loss of reproductive efficiency is due to the loss of pregnancy and the lengthening of the calving season," Wenzel said. "Bulls are a mechanical spreader during the breeding season, and the infection is maintained in a herd by infected bulls and chronically infected cows called "carrier cows"." "We're concerned because it has been going around and it has a potential to be a major economic loss to ranchers," said Eddy County Agriculture Agent Woods Houghton. "It's something you can't solve ranch-by-ranch," he said. "The whole community has to come together." Trich has been documented in every state west of the Mississippi River and several states in the southeastern U.S., Houghton said...more