Best practice cost effective management of BVDV

Authors: Bergman E
Publication: Proceedings of the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA) Annual Conferences, Volume 2014 AVA Annual Conference, Perth, Issue Cattle, May 2014
Publisher: Australian Veterinary Association

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Abstract: Australian veterinarians now possess the tools necessary to both cost effectively and systematically control Bovine Pestivirus or Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV) at the herd level in many management situations. The ability to easily measure both the immune status and PI status of individual animals and hence the status of individual herds has allowed us to manage a disease that previously was difficult to measure. The availability of these tools has reawakened interest in the disease at the veterinary, producer, and industry levels. The information gained allows veterinarians and producers to invest in BVDV management, rather than either blindly vaccinating or randomly ear notching individual animals. However, commercial biases of differing service providers has tended to create confusion amongst producers and some veterinarians. This frustration has led to the resurgence among some veterinarians and producers of the popularity of a historic, low input, non-systematic strategy for managing BVDV, auto vaccination. The goal of this article is to discuss the risks and merits of non-systematic control strategies such as auto vaccination and blanket vaccination and to contrast them against the more cost effective strategy of systematic control.

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