Officials with the South Dakota Animal Industry Board say bovine trichomoniasis has been found in two beef cattle herds in Oglala Lakota County.
Doctor Dustin Oedekoven is the state veterinarian. He says there's no threat to humans or food safety.
"You know when we find it in a bull, we recommend that bull be sold for slaughter and other bulls in the herd be tested and open cows be sold for slaughter, and it can be cleaned up fairly quickly, but yeah, there's no treatment for it and so it's simply identifying the affected animals and removing them from the herd."
Oedekoven reminds producers about a method meant to protect their herds.
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"Well, there is a test for trich in bulls, more difficult to detect in cows. But, there is a laboratory test. A lot of producers are familiar with that because we have some regulations tied to the sale of bulls - particularly non-virgin bulls. The sample is collected by a veterinarian and sent to a veterinary diagnostic lab to look for the organism that causes that disease. Testing before turnout is one way to prevent that disease from spreading. Because, if you can detect it early you can prevent that bull from passing that disease on to the cows in the herd."
He says bovine trich spreads during breeding and may cause abortions. Oedekoven says the disease can severely impact producers.
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"The economic cost to the livestock industry comes through reduced reproductive efficiency, not producing calves that you would otherwise expect from those cows on an annual basis. So, that's where the loss comes in is reproductive inefficiency. And, it can be quite devastating. We've seen trich outbreaks sometimes limit herds to 60 percent calving crop. So, you've got 100 cows out there and if only 60 of them have a calf due to this disease then that's a terrible loss to the industry."
Animal Industry Board officials say South Dakota producers must test non-virgin bulls for trich before they can be sold, loaned, or leased for breeding. Oedekoven says a large amount of open cows or late-calving cows may be a sign of trich.