Em Nau Farm BLOG

Tick Fever.

We have recently had an incident where one of our British White cattle contracted Tick Fever – not once but twice although she was vaccinated against it prior to us purchasing her.

Tick fever is caused by infection with the BABESIA and ANAPLASMA organisms transmitted by the cattle tick.  All cattle in tick infected regions are at risk of coming down with tick fever.  Our cow came from a non-tick region to our property which is within a tick area and this is one of the biggest risks however even those born within the tick area are not guaranteed to be immune.

Cattle can be immunised at any age but it is best to have it done between three and nine months of age.  Our cow was about twelve when she was vaccinated prior to coming here.  It takes about three to four weeks after the vaccine for the immunity to develop for the BABESIA and about two months for immunity to develop for ANAPLASMA.

One dose is normally sufficient for lifetime immunity so we were unlucky that it didn't take the first time.  We noticed something was wrong when our cow started showing signs of lethargy and then when she started peeing “red urine” we knew we needed to call the vet.  The vet promptly came out and luckily for us was able to save her as tick fever can be fatal if left to long before treatment.

The vet advised us to re-immunise her in about eight weeks as the treatment she received for the tick fever had “killed” her vaccine.  As the eight weeks were coming to a close she contracted a second bout of tick fever and we started to process again with the end result being her vaccinated again.  It has now been many months and she seems to have come through it OK but we are always vigilant for any symptom reappearing .