Prime Time Winter 2020

Successful Sampling How to take, preserve and ship samples for pregnancy, DNA and BVD testing

BY MICKY BURCH, CONTRIBUTING WRITER

T he calendar a human race, we’re living in the Informa- tion Age. As producers, we’re taking that infor- mation and turning it into the most produc- tive, efficient beef in history. But how do we actually get our hands on that information? Kelly Heath, DVM, director and attending veterinarian, Institu- tional Animal Care Program, University of Nebraska, presented “How to take, preserve and ship samples for DNA, bovine viral diar- flipped to 2020 not long ago. As

tein B (PSPB) that’s only produced by an active, growing placenta in the uterus. “If you’re going to be preg-checking heifers, you want to make sure you’re at least 25 days post breeding,” Heath con- tinued. Cows should be tested at 28 days or more post- breeding and 73 days or more post-calving because it takes a little longer for them to reach PSPB levels that can be detected. For producers testing recipi- ent females, it’s best to test 25 days post-implant of a 7-day-old embryo or 32 days post-heat.

Kelly Heath, DVM, explains successful sampling techniques at the 2019 Range Beef Cow Symposium.

rhea (BVD) or pregnancy testing” at the 2019 Range Beef Cow Symposium held Nov. 18-20 in Mitchell, Neb. Blood Testing Early-stage pregnancy testing through blood samples as an alternative to palpa- tion or ultrasounding is a non-invasive way to check for pregnancy, Heath said. It’s competitively priced at about $2.50 per sample and producers can get results with- in 48 hours of receipt at the lab. The test, BioPryn ® , is an enzyme-linked immunosor- bent assay (ELISA) of serum or plasma. “When you get all done, you get a report back that reads either pregnant, open or recheck,” Heath explained. Those results are 99 percent accurate for identifying open cows, and 95 percent accurate for detecting pregnant females, based on the presence of a specific pro- tein called the Pregnancy-Specific Pro-

When pulling a sample, supplies to gather before getting started include blood tubes (red tops for serum, purple tops for plasma), a needle holder or Vacutainer ® blood collection tube (which is a needle and hub), a double-sided needle or Vacutainer needle and a sharps container. Alterna- tive to a Vacutainer, Heath recommended a 3-mL syringe and 1-inch, 18-gauge needle. “If you’re just starting out learning how to collect blood samples from the tail of a cow, a syringe with a needle might be easi- er to handle than a Vacutainer,” he said. Blood samples are fairly easy to obtain from the cow’s tail. “There’s a dimple where the vertebrae meets a little hole – you can palpate that by running your finger up the bottom of the tail,” Heath described. “When you can feel that depression – it’s about the size of a nickel – that’s your target, so relax the

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Akaushi Prime Time • Winter 2020

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