WT Scientists Taking Part in Research into Costly Cattle Liver Abscesses

A West Texas A&M University professor was a key member of a team investigating the causes of one of the costliest afflictions in cattle.

Dr. Ty Lawrence, WT’s Caviness Davis Distinguished Chair in Meat Science and professor of animal science in WT’s Paul Engler College of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, and scientists from the USDA’s Agricultural Research Service, Texas Tech University and Kansas State University recently published a model study into the triggers for liver abscesses in cattle in the Journal of Animal Science.

The team also has earned a $650,000 grant from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture to continue this work.

Liver abscesses often occur in feedlot cattle because they are fed a high-energy, low-roughage diet in order to reach the desired quality grades weight prior to slaughter. The abscesses can lead to the need to further trim carcasses, which can lead to more than $900 million in annual beef industry losses.

“A reliable and repeatable model will allow beef industry scientists to apply treatment strategies to mitigate liver abscess frequency and severity,” Lawrence said.

WT has been a leader in researching cattle liver abscesses since the 1970s.

April is Research and Innovation Month across The Texas A&M University System.

“After decades of studies, researchers haven't found an accurate way to predict nor diagnose liver abscesses, because of the complexity of the disease,” said Rand Broadway, a research scientist with ARS’s Livestock Issues Research Unit. “Our study is a huge collaborative effort between USDA and academic partners to develop a liver abscess model in cattle that can help us better understand how liver abscess formation begins. We are constantly learning about the causes and development of these abscesses.”

The research team’s model consistently reproduces such abscesses in about 50 percent of the cattle on which it has been tested, which is important for researchers to study abscess development and prevention strategies, particularly in calves entering the beef supply chain from dairy origin.

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