Brown Swiss

A 4-year-old Brown Swiss cow from a free-stall barn with concrete flooring and a manure scraper system was identified as having an abnormal gait during routine locomotion scoring.

From: Comparative Veterinary Anatomy , 2022

Volume 1

F.E. Madalena , ... N. Cala-Moreno , in Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences (Third Edition), 2019

Sunandini

A ⅝ Brown Swiss × ⅜ local B. indicus was developed in Kerala State by an Indo-Swiss project started in 1963. Half-breds and 3/4 Brown Swiss were crossed to produce the ⅝ Brown Swiss crosses. The Brown Swiss base consisted of 33 sires and 45 cows. American Brown Swiss, Holstein and Jersey genes have also been introduced recently. The Indo–Swiss project evolved into the Kerala Livestock Development Board, which initiated a sire progeny-testing program in 1977. This required the development of field performance and pedigree recording. Some 4000–5000 animals are registered annually, and milk quantity is recorded on about 2300 cows.

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Volume 1

David S. Buchanan , in Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences (Third Edition), 2016

Brown Swiss

The Brown Swiss originated in the cantons (states) of Schwyz, Zug, St. Gallen, Glarus, Lucerne, and Zurich in Switzerland. It became a prominent breed during the middle of the nineteenth century although its origin may have been much earlier. The Pinzgauer breed from Austria was a contributor to the breed although many other earlier breeds also contributed. The first importation of Brown Swiss cattle to the United States was in 1869. The importer was Henry M. Clark of Belmont, Massachusetts. His imported bull was recorded in the Brown Swiss Cattle Breeders' Association (formed in 1880 in Worcester, Massachusetts) as William Tell 1. The breed did not increase in popularity in the United States until about 1920 when there were more than 8000 Brown Swiss in the country. Some prominent early US herds included Lee's Hill Farm, Morristown, New Jersey and White Cloud Farm, Princeton, New Jersey.

Brown Swiss should be, as the name suggests, some shade of brown. The actual shade may vary from a very light color to a deep, dark brown. Frequently, the back and areas around the muzzle are lighter in color than the rest of the body. The nose, hooves, and switch should be black. Brown Swiss are large cattle (600–800   kg) and dairy-type Brown Swiss should display good dairy characteristics with moderate levels of milk production (19–25   kg   day−1). There are strains of Brown Swiss that tend more toward beef characteristics and they are used, at times, in beef crossbreeding programs.

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DAIRY ANIMALS | Major Bos taurus Breeds

D.S. Buchanan , in Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences, 2002

Brown Swiss

The Brown Swiss originated in the cantons (states) of Schwyz, Zug, St Gallen, Glarus, Lucerne and Zurich in Switzerland. It became a prominent breed during the middle of the nineteenth century although its origin may have been much earlier. The Pinzgauer breed from Austria was a contributor to the breed although many other earlier breeds also contributed. The first importation of Brown Swiss cattle to the United States was in 1869. The importer was Henry M Clark of Belmont, Massachusetts. His imported bull was recorded in the Brown Swiss Cattle Breeders' Association (formed in 1880 in Worcester, Massachusetts) as William Tell 1. The breed did not increase in popularity in the United States until about 1920 when there were more than 8000 Brown Swiss in the country. Some prominent early US herds included Lee's Hill Farm, Morristown, New Jersey and White Cloud Farm, Princeton, New Jersey.

Brown Swiss should be, as the name suggests, some shade of brown ( Figure 2 ). The actual shade may vary from a very light colour to a deep, dark brown. Frequently, the back and areas around the muzzle are lighter in colour than the rest of the body. The nose, hooves and switch should be black. Brown Swiss are large cattle (600–800   kg) and dairy-type Brown Swiss should display good dairy characteristics with moderate levels of milk production (21–29   kg   day−1) ( Table 3 ). There are strains of Brown Swiss that tend more toward beef characteristics and they are used, at times, in beef crossbreeding programmes.

Figure 2. Brown Swiss cow. (Photograph courtesy of Mississippi State University.)

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DAIRY ANIMALS | Bos indicus Breeds and Bos indicus × Bos taurus Crosses

F.E. Madalena , in Encyclopedia of Dairy Sciences, 2002

Sunandini

A 5 8 Brown Swiss   × 3 8 local Bos indicus was developed in Kerala State by an Indo-Swiss project started in 1963. Half-breds and 3 4 Brown Swiss were crossed to produce the 5 8 Brown Swiss crosses. The Brown Swiss base consisted of 33 sires and 45 cows. American Brown Swiss, Holstein and Jersey genes have also been introduced recently. The Indo– Swiss project evolved into the Kerala Livestock Development Board, which initiated a sire progeny-testing programme in 1977. This required the development of field performance and pedigree recording. Some 4000–5000 animals are registered annually and milk quantity is recorded on about 2300 cows.

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Sole Ulcer

Karl Nuss , in Comparative Veterinary Anatomy, 2022

History

A 4-year-old Brown Swiss cow from a free-stall barn with concrete flooring and a manure scraper system was identified as having an abnormal gait during routine locomotion scoring. The cow walked with an arched back and abducted the right pelvic limb when standing. The cow was 50 days in her current lactation and had a daily production of 40 kg (88 lbs) of milk, a good appetite, and a body condition score (BCS) of 2/5 (1= emaciated; 5= obese). No abnormalities were observed at the time of foot trimming 5 months before.

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Muscle and Tendon

Barry J. Cooper , Beth A. Valentine , in Jubb, Kennedy & Palmer's Pathology of Domestic Animals: Volume 1 (Sixth Edition), 2016

Other bovine myopathies.

Congenital myopathy occurs in Braunvieh × Brown Swiss calves. Both males and females are affected. These calves are abnormal at or soon after birth, with rapidly progressive muscle weakness and recumbency developing within 2 weeks of birth. Histologic findings are marked fiber size variation resulting from fiber atrophy and hypertrophy, fiber splitting of hypertrophied fibers, disorganization of myofibrils, nemaline rods, internal nuclei, and peripheral eosinophilic inclusions. Fiber necrosis, regeneration, and endomysial fibrosis are not seen. Ultrastructural evaluation reveals that peripheral inclusions consist of tightly packed filamentous structures. Myofibrillar and mitochondrial disarray are also seen.

A congenital myopathy has been reported in a single Friesian calf that showed progressive weakness from birth. Muscle fibers were poorly developed and often exhibited lack of adequate myofibrils similar to myofibrillar hypoplasia of piglets. The most striking abnormality was the absence of Z-lines and presence of intracytoplasmic electron dense inclusions.

A degenerative myopathy characterized by necrotizing vasculopathy within skeletal muscle occurs in young Gelbvieh cattle (Fig. 3-58). The cause of this disorder is not known, although both immune-mediated and vitamin E deficiency–associated vasculopathy have been proposed.

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Neurologic Diseases

Alexander de Lahunta , Thomas J. Divers , in Rebhun's Diseases of Dairy Cattle (Second Edition), 2008

Motor Neuron Disease

A congenital motor neuron disease occurs in Brown Swiss calves that is inherited as an autosomal recessive gene. These calves exhibit a progressive neuromuscular disorder at birth or within the first few weeks of life. When ambulatory, their gait is very short-strided, and they fatigue rapidly and collapse. They progress in a short period to recumbency with loss of tone and reflexes and develop severe muscle atrophy. At necropsy, the spinal cord ventral gray columns contain neuronal cell bodies in various stages of degeneration or glial scars where neurons have been lost. Secondary Wallerian degeneration occurs in their intramedullary axons and throughout their distribution in the peripheral nerves. Both North American and European bulls have been identified as carriers.

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Neurologic Diseases

Thomas J. Divers , Alexander de Lahunta , in Rebhun's Diseases of Dairy Cattle (Third Edition), 2018

Motor Neuron Disease

A congenital motor neuron disease occurs in Brown Swiss calves that is heritable and associated with an autosomal recessive gene. It is also often referred to as bovine spinal muscular atrophy. Affected homozygote calves exhibit a progressive neuromuscular disorder at birth or within the first few weeks of life. When ambulatory, their gait is very short strided, and they fatigue rapidly and collapse. They progress over a short period to recumbency with loss of muscle tone and reflexes and develop severe muscle atrophy. At necropsy, the spinal cord ventral gray columns contain neuronal cell bodies in various stages of degeneration or glial scars where neurons have been lost. Secondary Wallerian degeneration occurs in the intramedullary axons and throughout their distribution in the peripheral nerves. Both North American and European bulls have been identified as carriers.

A similar syndrome of progressive weakness beginning at approximately 2 weeks of age and progressing to tetraparesis by just a few months of age has been described in Holstein-Friesian calves and is referred to in the literature as spinal muscular atrophy.

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Large Animal Spinal Cord Disease

Alexander de Lahunta DVM, PhD, DACVIM, DACVP , Eric Glass MS, DVM, DACVIM (Neurology) , in Veterinary Neuroanatomy and Clinical Neurology (Third Edition), 2009

BROWN SWISS MYELOPATHY

Be aware that many inherited neurologic disorders of the CNS of Brown Swiss cattle have been discovered. An autosomal-recessive inherited motor neuron disease, often called spinal muscular atrophy, was described in Chapter 5. The term weaver has been used for a slowly progressive degenerative myeloencephalopathy that is inherited as an autosomal-recessive genetic disorder. 63, 76 This neurologic disorder is an axonopathy with secondary demyelination and astrogliosis and with onset of UMN and GP system dysfunction in the pelvic limbs at 5 to 8 months of age. After weeks of progression, clinical signs of mild thoracic limb dysfunction may be noted. These cattle become unable to stand on the pelvic limbs by 18 to 36 months of progression. A congenital axonopathy has also been described in Brown Swiss calves that are born down unable to stand with clinical signs of diffuse UMN and GP system dysfunction and lesion distribution similar to the late-onset axonopathy just described. 47 Some of these calves exhibit opisthotonus and extensor rigidity. Whether the late-onset axonopathy and the congenital axonopathy are the same disease process remains to be determined.

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Muscular Tone and Gait Abnormalities

Marie-Eve Fecteau , Raymond W. Sweeney , in Food Animal Practice (Fifth Edition), 2009

OTHER HEREDITARY CONDITIONS CAUSING ATAXIA AND GAIT ANOMALIES

Bovine spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) is a heritable disorder of Brown Swiss cattle that is characterized by motor neuron degeneration of the ventral horn cells of the spinal cord. 5 This syndrome clinically resembles Weaver syndrome except that the age of onset is different, with SMA first seen at a much younger age (2-5 weeks of age), and the degree of muscular atrophy is much greater with this syndrome than with Weaver syndrome. Progressive spinal myelinopathy of beef cattle is a progressive disorder of possible genetic origin reported in Murray Grey calves. 81 Affected animals develop ataxia of the hind limbs, swaying of the hindquarters, and collapse of one hind leg when falling to one side. Spinal dysmyelination of Braunvieh-Brown Swiss calves is a congenital spinal condition characterized by dysmyelination of the dorsal tracts of the spinal cord. 82 Calves are recumbent from birth; have coarse tremor of the head, neck, and body; and generalized muscle atrophy. Doddler syndrome is a congenital defect of Jersey cattle that is thought to be inherited as an autosomal recessive trait. 83 Calves are recumbent from birth but appear bright and alert. They can stand with assistance and show severe head tremor when forced to stand.

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