Winner of this week's Scientific Humiliation Award (come learn all about calf scours)

[Duck_Duck_Goose]

I can’t believe this. :rolleyes: From AP.
http://wire.ap.org/APnews/center_story.html?FRONTID=NATIONAL&STORYID=APIS79FN2900

JANUARY 12, 16:03 EST
Cloned Ox From Rare Species Dies
By KIMBERLY DURNAN
Associated Press Writer

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A cloned ox that gestated in the womb of a cow in a scientific first died of an ordinary disease this week, two days after it was born, scientists said Friday.

Scientists claimed bittersweet victory in the experiment, which used technology they hope can help shore up the numbers of endangered Asian gaur (pronounced ``gower’’).

The baby bull was born Monday at TransOva Genetics in Sioux Center, Iowa, and died from common dysentery Wednesday. The project united cloning with that of an interspecies birth.

A necropsy concluded that the gaur’s death was not a result of cloning or gestation in another species, said Robert Lanza, vice president of medical and scientific development at ACT.

They go through all this research and testing and funding, and they finally get the thing on the ground, and it dies two days later. Of “dysentery”, a.k.a. “calf diarrhea”.

A.k.a. “scours”. Plain old common everyday calf scours. Farmers have been coping with calf scours for thousands of years. For the last 100 years, they’ve had the miracle of modern science to help them. For example, we know exactly what causes scours.

http://www.gov.on.ca/OMAFRA/english/livestock/dairy/facts/85-041.htm

Causes
There have been a number of agents incriminated as causing calf scours, both bacterial and viral, which can occur singly or in combinations. The most frequent culprit continues to be the enteropathogenic E. coli organism. Although various types of E. coli are normal inhabitants of the intestine, some forms occur that are highly pathogenic (disease producing) resulting in severe scouring and often death.

And we know how to prevent it.

Although all the details of calf diarrhea have not been completely clarified, it can be said that: (1) the disease is transmitted from one animal to another: (2) immunity appears to develop with increasing age and exposure; (3) good management practices can almost completely eliminate it from a herd; and (4) the cause is usually either a virus, a bacterium (i.e. E. coli) or often a combination of the two.

The calf’s disease protection is obtained from the dam as disease fighting antibodies present in the colostrum (first milk). This material can protect the offspring against most organisms present in the calf’s environment and it reflects in part the cow’s own immunity to disease. If the dam is moved from one farm to another or if new animals are brought into her environment such that disease causing organisms are present when she calves, against which she has not already developed immunity, the colostrum will be deficient and the newborn calf will not be protected.

Since it is recognized that at least part of the cause of diarrhea is infectious (i.e. a virus and bacteria) any measure the owner takes to reduce the number of disease causing agents in the calf’s environment will lessen the chances of a disease problem.

If other management procedures are unsuccessful in reducing the incidence of scours, there are effective vaccines available against enteropathogenic E. coli, which can be administered to the pregnant cow so that she produces high levels of specific antibodies in her colostrum. As well, there is a commercial source of antibodies against E. coli that can be administered directly to the calf immediately after birth.

And we know what to do for it if our calves come down with it anyway.

The disease may be very mild and transient if proper corrective measures are taken. However, it usually progresses if left unattended and death can occur in 2 to 3 days.

To understand the treatment of calf diarrhea it is perhaps easier to break it into its three parts: (1) control of the milk intake; (2) replacement of the calf’s fluid and electrolyte intake requirements with warm electrolyte water solutions; and (3) the use of antibacterial drugs to remove disease producing bacteria from the gut.

I would just bet that there was so much attention focussed on the experimental aspect of this that nobody paid any attention to the farming aspect of it. I would bet that they gave the calf formula instead of allowing it to suckle. I would bet that when it first started to do “poorly”, nobody really noticed, all of them being so focussed on popping champagne corks.

I would bet that there were no strict quarantine procedures to protect it against infection by other cattle. It’s common knowledge that vets carry germs on their shoes and clothes; I would bet that nobody paid any attention to all the area vets who probably came to “ooh” and “aah” at the fabulous beast, not to mention the members of the press, who probably thought, “As long as I have to schlep all the way to Iowa for this, I might as well stop off at this big dairy farm first and see if there’s anything else I can dredge up”.

In other words, I think somebody screwed up, bigtime. And so it’s back to the multi-million dollar drawing board.