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Faunsdale, AL | I don't think the wart virus is "ever present". Ringworm fungus IS everywhere, at least in barns and pens, but I don't think the wart virus survives that well outside of the host. I believe it must be transferred from a wart to another susceptable animal.
Ear taggers would not be an efficient way to transmit it, but tattoo pliers can certainly do it. I"ve never seen any as bad as your pictures show. Usually get a crop of small ones that the calf eliminates pretty readily.
I agree with the idea of slicing off as much of the wart as possible without damaging the ear underneath. The weight of the wart is deforming the ear cartilage on the one heifer.
I learned to make a crude formalin inactivated vaccine from the warts cut off the animal to be vaccinated with the vaccine. This avoids the problem of different strains of virus that are probably the reason why purchased wart vaccines don't work all that well. I would not ever recommend vaccinating cattle in one herd with a vaccine made from warts harvested from another herd, but using the warts off a couple of the calves in a herd to make a vaccine for them and others in the herd seems like a reasonable approach to me. | |
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need to do anything with these warts?
