An acute outbreak of teat lesions affecting 38% of a dairy herd in Northland

Authors: Petrovski KR
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 53, Issue 2, pp 162-163, Apr 2005
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Cattle, Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant
Subject Terms: Viral, Disease/defect, Infectious disease, Mammary gland/udder, Milk
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: Teat lesions are common in dairy cattle in New Zealand. Most of the infectious cases are caused by pseudocowpox virus, but lesions similar to those caused by bovine herpesvirus (BHV)-2 have been described clinically and confirmed serologically in New Zealand (Horner and Raynel 1988). BHV-2 and BHV-4 cause an acute viral disease in cattle known as bovine herpes mammillitis or ulcerative mammillitis (Hillerton et al 2001). Presumptive cases have been reported in New Zealand based on the nature and distribution of lesions (Daniel 1970). The disease is probably endemic in New Zealand but is poorly documented and generally considered to be mild and sporadic. The main differential diagnosis is pseudocowpox, which is often also present in herds affected with bovine herpes mammillitis, and dual infections of individual cattle have been reported (Gibbs et al 1972). To my knowledge, neither BHV-2 nor BHV-4 have yet been isolated in New Zealand. This report describes an outbreak of teat lesions in a herd of milking cows in Northland that affected 38% of the herd over a 3-month period.
The report is the first I am aware of to document an outbreak of this magnitude of what was presumed, but not confirmed, to be bovine herpes mammillitis in a dairy herd in New Zealand…

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