Western Australia has laws that control chemical use on livestock. These laws protect people, animals and the environment from harm, and maintain access to overseas markets. Chemical users must follow label directions, not use unregistered veterinary chemicals (e.g.
Western Australia has laws to control chemical use on trade animals. These laws protect people, animals and the environment from harm. Misuse of chemicals may result in harmful residues in animal products.
Thiamine, also known as vitamin B1, is normally produced by bacteria in the rumen of cattle and sheep on well-balanced roughage diets.
Thiamine deficiency reduces energy availability to the brain, which leads to a type of brain degeneration called polioencephalomalacia or PEM.
‘Calf scours’ is when young calves develop diarrhoea and become dehydrated. The scour can be white, yellow, grey or blood-stained, and is often foul-smelling. It occurs in calves being suckled by their mothers in the paddock and in hand-reared calves.
Preventing lead residues in livestock protects human food safety and Western Australia's ongoing access to international markets. Lead is highly toxic to livestock, particularly cattle, and can result in sudden death.
In Australia, it is illegal to feed restricted animal material (RAM) to ruminants (cattle, sheep, goats, deer, camels and alpacas). This is known as the 'ruminant feed ban'.
Grass tetany is a highly fatal disease associated with low levels of magnesium in the blood.
Botulism is a rapid onset, usually fatal disease caused by the botulinum toxin produced by the bacterium Clostridium botulinum.
Typical signs include hindlimb weakness progressing to paralysis, collapse and death.
Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) in cattle is a complex disease that is caused by bovine pestivirus. Bovine pestivirus and its resulting diseases have several interchangeable names including bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), pestivirus and bovine pestivirus.
Vaccines can prevent a wide range of diseases that cause reduced production, fertility or death in cattle and economic losses to Western Australian producers.
