Management of Congestive Heart Failure in Beef Cattle Populations

Bovine congestive heart failure has become an increasing cause of mortality in cow/calf and feedlot populations. While cases have historically been associated with cattle in high altitude environments, in current management systems at low-to-moderate elevations significant numbers of cattle have been identified as affected or at risk for this syndrome. Large-scale phenotyping systems have enabled the characterization of morphologic heart changes associated with right heart dysfunction in large populations of cattle. This has led to the estimation of heritability of the condition and allowed the development of robust genetic prediction tools to identify individuals and populations at risk.