Animal health and welfare surveillance priorities for the Canadian beef industry

The Canadian Animal Health Surveillance System (CAHSS) is a collaborative network that gathers and uses surveillance data to monitor animal health, reduce disease impacts, and inform national priorities. Beef cattle practitioners, industry professionals, and veterinary epidemiologists collaborated to establish the primary animal health and welfare surveillance priorities for the beef sector over the next 5 y. A 4-step process with meetings, surveys, and a modified DISCONTOOLS rubric was used to set surveillance goals and to prioritize diseases and other issues for the Canadian beef industry. In order of decreasing importance, 18 beef surveillance priorities were identified: i) antimicrobial use (AMU) and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) stewardship; ii) AMR for bovine diseases; iii) feed availability and cost; iv) regulatory changes affecting trade; v) bovine respiratory disease (BRD); vi) nutrition, including trace minerals and water; vii) Mycoplasma bovis/dispar; viii) mortality rates (crude, case specific); ix) feedlot cattle purchasing practices affecting disease rates; x) histophilosis; xi) lameness; xii) neonatal diarrhea; xiii) chronic disease and timely culling/euthanasia; xiv) colostral immunity and management; xv) pain control practices; xvi) pregnancy rates; xvii) growth performance rates; and xviii) cattle handling practices. Beef network priorities were shared with the CAHSS beef network, along with a comprehensive list of ongoing initiatives and identified data gaps to guide surveillance, research, and stakeholder communications, including those with bovine practitioners.