Bovine Viral Diarrhoea

BVD is a common cause of respiratory and reproductive issues in the herd. It is a economically important disease in
many countries, and problems realted to the disease are thought to be increasing in some areas.

Although a disease in itself, BVD causes a number of transient infections which are often the cause of animal health
and economic problems.

Cause
Bovine viral diarrhea is a viral disease of ruminants that is caused by the bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV).

BVD is transmitted in a number of ways. Either through a congenital infection of the fetus or after birth. Congenital
infections may cause resorption, abortion, stillbirth, or live-birth. Congenitally infected fetuses that survive in utero
infection (i.e., the live-births) may be born as BVDV-infected calves. The BVDV infection in these calves will persist
during the entire life of the calf, and they will shed BVDV continuously in the farm environment.

Symptoms
In adults, clinical signs are highly variable. Signs of acute infection include fever, lethargy, loss of appetite, ocular
dishcharge, nasal dischargem oral lesions, diarrhea and decreasing milk production. Chronic infection may lead to
signs of mucosal disease.

In calves, the most commonly recognised birth defect is cerebellar hypoplasia. The signs of this are:

 Ataxia/ lack of voluntary coordination of musle movements;

 Tremors
 Wide stance
 Stumbling
 Failure to nurse

In severe cases the calf may die.

Transient infections include diarrhea, calf pneumonia, decreased milk production, reproductive disorders, increased
occurrence of other diseases, and death

The losses from fetal infection include abortions; congenital defects; weak and abnormally small calves; unthrifty,
persistently infected (PI) animals; and death among PI animals.

Treatment
Treatment of BVD is limited primarily to supportive therapy. Once identified, infected animals should be culled.

Prevention
Research is ongoing to look at the potential for breeding animals that are less susceptible to the disease. At the
moment, no one breed has an advantage.

One strategy to minimise BVD transmission is to make infected cattle less infectious, and this can be achieved by
increasing the antibody titer. Cattle that have antibodies at the time that they acquire acute BVDV infection do not
shed as much virus, and they will shed virus for a shorter period of time.

On farm there it is important for producers to cull persistantly infected animals from the herd. Blood tests will identify
Housing calves in individual hutches as opposed to group housing will decrease contact and risk of infection, as will
reducing stocking density.

Strategic vaccination and high-quality colostrum could also decrease the proportion of susceptible cattle.

A BVD control programme on farm would aim to prevent fetal infections, to eliminate reproductive loss and decrease
losses due to transient infections. Control is achieved with a combination of removal of PI cattle, vaccination and
enhanced biosecurity.

Vaccines
Vaccines for BVD are available. The two categories are modified live virus (MLV) vaccines and killed virus (KV)
vaccines. Generally speaking, MLV vaccines require only one dose during the initial immunization step, however they
are more difficult to handle.

KV vaccines are usually more expensive and more than one dose is required during immunization. However, KV
vaccines are less susceptible to deactivation by temperature extremes, and they are less susceptible to deactivation
by chemicals.