Page 6 - Livestock Matters - Summer 2014

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WORKING
TOGETHER
FOR A HEALTHIER FUTURE...
5
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
Veterinary surgeon
Miranda Macinnes
XLVets practice
Calweton Veterinary
Group
Getting to grips with
BVD;
busting the myths
and tackling the facts
BVD - THE FACTS
The cost of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) is not hard to
understand - despite its name, BVD causes a wide range
of problems including extended calving intervals, abortions,
subfertility in bulls, scour and pneumonia in calves. This
makes it one of the most profit-draining infectious diseases
of cattle.
MIRANDA MACINNES, CALWETON VETERINARY GROUP
What’s more surprising is the lack of progress,
given that there has been a highly effective
vaccine available for nearly two decades.
Through compulsory measures, countries
including Scotland, Ireland and much of
Europe have made great strides towards
eradicating the disease. England to date has
not had such a scheme; however, this shouldn't
stand in the way of England becoming BVD
Free - something which is necessary if our
cattle are to keep up with the rest. Whether
you breed cattle or buy youngstock, you
cannot afford to ignore it.
1.
PIs.
What are they exactly
?
2.
I vaccinate, therefore BVD
isn't a problem.
Unfortunately,
this is often not the case
.
3.
I don't breed cattle, therefore
I can't do anything about
BVD, right?
Wrong again.
One of the biggest
hurdles seems to be the
myths
associated with
BVD. These include:
So now for some
myth-busting…
It’s important to realise that
the approach to BVD will not
be the same for all farms; the
XLVets BVD-Free campaign
provides advice that will be
appropriate to YOUR farm,
however it is set up.