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.
The Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) is responsible for regulating the labels of stockfeed supplied in Western Australia to ensure they provide the required information to people feeding it to their livestock.
Some of the world’s safest meat, milk and fibre products are produced here in Western Australia. WA farmers produce safe food by keeping their livestock free of harmful residues.
