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Our Research Goals |
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Our overall objective is to enhance the
efficiency, quality and consistency of our clients' beef production. FHMS
incorporates the results of its studies into computerized economic models, to
assess the cost-benefits of the technology and products in question. This
allows us to provide clients with definitive information on the use of our
research results. |
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The FHMS Approach to Research |
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Live Testing |
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Our research is conducted under commercial
conditions in all sectors of the beef industry, including pastures, cow/calf
operations, backgrounders, feedlots and processors. |
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Discovering Innovative Applications |
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We at FHMS often find innovative uses for the
products and technologies we study. For example, while a drug may be known to
have a prescribed effect in a laboratory test, the pharmaceutical company might
not know all of the real-life circumstances in which the drug could be useful.
FHMS can evaluate drugs in different situations, with different types of
cattle, and a new drug may also be made part of a larger treatment program. |
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Ground-breaking Research
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Here are some of our more important research
results:
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Identification and documentation of Histophilus somni (formerly Haemophilus
somnus) as a major cause of feedlot disease
- Establishment of the case
definition for undifferentiated fever/bovine respiratory disease (UF/BRD) and
determining the economic impact of the disease in feedlot production
- Development
of prophylactic and therapeutic regimes for the control of UF/BRD
- Definition
of innovative low-dose, delayed administration and implant stacking avoidance
strategies to optimize the use of hormonal growth implants
- Determination of
the cost-effectiveness of parasite control programs
- Definition of feeding
strategies for western Canada based on commercial feedlot field trial data,
rather than theoretical National Research Council calculations
- Definition of the
role of bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) virus in feedlot disease and developing
data-based strategies to control the effects of BVD virus in feedlot production
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Research-driven Innovation
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Development and introduction of a chute-side, computerized, individual animal
data recording system for day-to-day feedlot operation
- Use of applied
epidemiology to control disease in day-to-day feedlot operations and to
establish an ongoing animal health database for surveillance, monitoring, and
benchmarking of animal health
- Use of economic modeling and data-based
decision making for all decisions that affect feedlot production
- Development
of a commercial feedlot replicated-pen field trial model capable of
withstanding peer-reviewed scientific scrutiny, to generate relevant data to
feed into our data-based decision making and economic modeling processes
- Application
of digital imaging techniques for clinical and postmortem findings, to allow
for internal quality control between veterinarians, expansion of the distant
site feedlot production consulting model, and educational purposes
- Development
of marketing opportunities for slaughter animals that enable producers to adopt
specific production strategies to optimize targeted carcass characteristics
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Live testing in pastures, cow/calf
operations, backgrounders, feedlots and processors is how our research is
conducted |
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We at FHMS often discover
innovative uses for the products and technologies we study |
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From disease investigation to
technology assessment FHMS completes approximately 25 research projects each
year |
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