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5
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
BVD CONTROL
5
STEPS
to BVD control:
S
TATUS
Assess the BVD status of your herd, to see
if your herd has active BVD infection; via
milk sampling for dairy herds and blood
sampling for beef herds/youngstock.
Evaluate the problem and assess herd
performance e.g health, fertility etc.
STEP 1
T
EST
If active infection is revealed, blood
sample or ear tag tissue testing is required
to identify PIs.
STEP 2
P
ROTECT
Select a vaccine and administer at the
right time.
STEP 4
S
URVEILLANCE
Continue to monitor, test annually and
vaccinate as advised by your vet. Buy
cattle from a CHeCS approved health
scheme or quarantine and test all added
stock for virus.
STEP 5
E
LIMINATE
Identify and remove PIs via culling.
STEP 3
Some other findings from the study are also of
interest. For example, 23% of farms did not
know their BVD status; in Scotland by 1st
February 2013, this will no longer be the
case, but English and Welsh producers currently
have no required screening process.
Poor biosecurity, especially when it comes to
buying in stock is a very real disease risk. It is
recommended that producers should always
know the BVD status of stock coming onto
a unit, especially in-calf animals, and if
vaccinated, this includes knowing when they
were vaccinated because animals vaccinated
after service, could still be carrying an infected
foetus. In the study, only 28% reported knowing
the BVD status of bought-in animals and
very few purchasers insisted that stock
were vaccinated prior to coming onto their
own unit.
It was also interesting to note that the health
of the animals at the time of vaccination was
seldom taken into account.
A sick or immune-compromised animal will
not be able to respond well to a vaccine.
It is worrying then that there seemed few
incidences of illness being given as a reason
not to vaccinate.
Vaccines are sensitive and should always be
stored and handled correctly. They need to be
refrigerated and in the case of BVD, an opened
vial should be used within 10 hours - in the
study, around 34% of farmers kept such a bottle
for more than a month.
It is hard to fit all the treatments in at the
right time but some time spent planning when
and how to administer BVD vaccine primary
courses or boosters is time well spent.
Looking specifically at the timing of vaccine
administration is important. Bovilis BVD,
which is unique in that it is licensed to
prevent transplacental (mother to unborn calf)
transmission of the virus can be given four
weeks prior to gestation to prevent the birth
of a PI calf.
1
Meadows, D., Cattle Practice 2010 vol 18 part 3
XLVets would like to thank MSD for
their support with this article.
In the Summer issue
of Livestock Matters we will look at further
studies into BVD that are currently being undertaken by XLVet
member practices.