Congestive Heart Failure in Cattle – A learning curve

Julia Herman, DVM, MS Beef Cattle Specialist Veterinarian, NCBA, a contractor to the Beef Checkoff | January 17, 2024

There are few cattle diseases that do not have clear prevention strategies. For instance, to mitigate the risk of respiratory disease in cattle, a cattle producer could work on many prevention practices found in the Beef Checkoff-funded Beef Quality Assurance program. These may include improving biosecurity practices like quarantining new animals or separating young calves from older calves, working with their veterinarian to fine tune their vaccination program, or improving nutrition plans for better immune system preparation.

Prevention and treatment of Bovine Congestive Heart Failure (BCHF) is more challenging and requires exploration of several factors affecting this condition. This disease has become more common at the cow/calf and feedlot levels in the past few years and understanding the disease brings up many more questions. Brian Vander Ley, veterinarian and associate professor at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, has researched this disease to find practical solutions for cattle producers. He discussed a few questions that cattle producers have asked. 

What is congestive heart failure? 

Congestive heart failure is the name given to the last stage of damage or dysfunction to the circulatory system which includes the heart, lungs, and blood vessels. At this end stage, blood flow around the body is significantly impaired and fluid management is no longer possible, leading to fluid buildup in multiple areas of the body. When cattle reach this stage of congestive heart failure, signs like brisket swelling (leading to these animals being called “brisket disease” cases) are evident. This accumulation of fluid in body cavities like the chest, abdomen, and even around the heart itself cause difficulty breathing, exercise intolerance, elbows distended away from the body, and other signs.

How do cattle develop CHF? 

Cattle can develop CHF in many ways. It helps to understand how the heart and blood vessels work to provide critical nutrients and to remove wastes from cells in the body. The heart pumps blood by relaxing and allowing blood to fill it, very much like a balloon being filled with air. Once filled, the muscles of the heart contract to shrink the chambers of the heart and force the blood out into the blood vessels where the blood is then retained by one-way check valves. The heart has two big pumping chambers (ventricles), one that sends blood to the lungs to pick up oxygen, and one that pushes blood out to the body. 

Heart failure happens when one or more of the actions of the heart are interrupted. For instance, cattle that live at high elevations where oxygen is less abundant can experience a slowing of blood flow through their lungs to make oxygen pickup more effective. This creates a huge resistance to blood flow out of the heart and can eventually cause the heart to fail. These cases are the classic “high mountain disease” cases. Chronic pneumonia cattle will also experience this type of CHF as the infected lungs cause the resistance of blood flow out of the lungs. 

Another way the heart can fail is by being unable to fill with blood, such as with hardware disease. Infection from the wire causes fluid to accumulate around the heart and prevents blood from flowing in and completely filling the heart before it pumps again, resulting in much smaller amounts of blood being moved with each beat of the heart. All the blood trying to get into the heart backs up and causes fluid buildup as well. 

Another cause of heart failure is direct damage to the heart muscle. Overdoses of ionophores (such as monensin) or exposure to other muscle toxins (such as gossypol or from contaminated cottonseed) can directly damage the heart and cause it to fail. There are many more causes of congestive heart failure, including a form that happens in feedlot cattle that are genetically predisposed. The complexity of how CHF develops makes it difficult to prevent and treat.

Is there anything producers can do to prevent it or treat their cattle?

In some cases, yes – for instance, doing a good job of putting up feed and maintaining equipment to reduce the probability of hardware disease or developing good herd health programs to minimize the risk of cattle developing respiratory disease or chronic respiratory disease. These husbandry and preventive herd health programs are key to BQA guidelines and working with your herd veterinarian to evaluate risks at the operation level is important. However, in many cases, there are no good prevention or treatment options. Treatments generally only address acute signs but do not provide long term relief from CHF effects. Once a case of heart failure develops, the disease is not reversable or treatable and it is considered a terminal disease. If one is diagnosed, animal welfare needs to be considered and the animal should be immediately shipped to a processor or humanely euthanized per BQA guidelines. 

How can we improve genetics to minimize CHF? 

A form of heart failure in feedlot cattle has genetic links. Several research projects have demonstrated a genetic component that makes cattle more likely to develop heart failure at some point during the feeding period. This is both good and bad news. The good news is that there are tests available to help make breeding decisions to reduce the risk of heart failure in feedlot cattle; however, this work needs to be done at the seedstock and commercial cow/calf levels. Genetic testing of feedlot cattle to assess their risk of heart failure is possible, but there is little known about how to reduce the chances of heart failure in cattle that are at increased genetic risk for the disease. 

Why is it such a concern for the industry? 

Several reports that have looked at CHF occurrence over time show a doubling of CHF every ten years. While cattle die from heart failure throughout the feeding period, the most painful cases are those that develop very near the end of the feeding period. Animals that develop heart failure have very compromised welfare and are essentially untreatable. Identifying these animals early, managing them separately and following BQA guidelines for handling, transporting, and marketing compromised cattle is recommended for these animals. Another important aspect of this is the substantial loss of resources including the beef that animal would have produced plus all the feed and water the animal consumed. Reducing CHF cases would improve sustainability of the cattle industry from a business and economic aspect, while mitigating animal welfare concerns from advanced stages of CHF. While there is not as much documented evidence for CHF at the cow/calf level, there are a lot of anecdotal reports from veterinarians that calves are suffering from this disease before weaning. These characteristics add up to create a problem that harms cattle, causes losses for livestock producers, and is becoming more common. It is important to continue to research the multiple causes that contribute to CHF and determine how our industry can minimize its impacts in the future. BQA provides prevention guidelines for herd health plans in addition to ways to improve collaboration across the industry, from producers to animal scientists to veterinarians. Resources can be found at bqa.org.