Bvd cow

L1985

Hi guys new to this so bear with me.
we have had a cow with BVD in the herd for the last 2 years. Once my dad heard he could keep her he did and didn't realise that she was probably (from my understanding infecting the others) she's gone now as predictably had problem Calving and died. My issue is the rest of the herd -we have been having prob 3/4 calves going down to bvd each yr the last 2 years and 2/3 sprung cows out of 20/25. So how do we go from here? How do we clear it out from the herd? Financially wise we can't accept any sort of hit and my dads in his 70s with me not being around and I wasn't that involved in the farm- we just didn't realise why our calving rate had gone so bad (all AA usually no probs really).is it a big deal should we test everything but we are looking at selling stock soon as well? Any advice or clearing it up would be good as my dad's kinda confused about the whole thing?hed no idea it could be spread from animal to animal outside of cow to calf. Thanks guys

greysides

Without messing you around, you really need to talk this through with your vet as he knows your circumstances best.

If the cow has been mixing with the remainder of the herd they are all probably naturally immune now. Better than any vaccine once they've been exposed and cleared it out of their systems. Any of her surviving calves would be carriers too. All their calves will be carriers. Likewise her dam needs testing if by some chance she hasn't been tested directly or indirectly yet.

I would imagine your best bet is to get with the programme and get rid of all BVD positive calves and cows once the persistence of the infection has been established by a second test 3-4 weeks later.

Fertility will return to normal over time but the disrupted calving pattern may take later to normalise.

Lots to read about it here and in plain language.

LivInt20

First thing you need to do is get rid of any calves that have tested positive for BVD through the testing programme.

No point keeping these as they will:

1. Probably die on you eventually
2. Infect other stock and lead to more BVD infected calves (Persistently Infected PIs)
3. Reduce the health status of your herd, leading to scour, pneumonia, etc.
4. Even if they do make it to slaughter (you cannot sell an infected calf live) possibly reduced value of the carcass as the meat can be rejected.

All of the above leads to reduced income and increased costs on the farm, equals less profit.

Once you get rid of all PI calves, test the cows that these calves came from.

If any cow shows up as a PI get rid of her, to the factory straight away. A PI cow will always have a PI calf.

Once you get rid of all the PIs in the herd you will notice an increase in the health status of the herd which is your financial reward for clearing out infected stock.

By holding BVD infected stock, it is affecting the whole BVD eradication programmme in the country.

It may not seem like a good idea financially getting rid of all the infected stock, but you will be rewarded in the long run, and by long run I mean within the next one to two years.

whelan2

IT should have been part of the bvd scheme that any animall calf or dam, that tested positive should have been gotten rid of, end of, scheme is pointless otherwise

slippy wicket

whelan2 wrote: »

IT should have been part of the bvd scheme that any animall calf or dam, that tested positive should have been gotten rid of, end of, scheme is pointless otherwise

A guy near us kept on a few Friedan bulls calves last year that failed test.
Didn't thrive at all, and I think they all died on him. Looking at them across the ditch they ere the sort of piners that it'd be a kindness to shoot

Bellview

whelan2 wrote: »

IT should have been part of the bvd scheme that any animall calf or dam, that tested positive should have been gotten rid of, end of, scheme is pointless otherwise

Agree completely never understand why not compulsory to remove pi and if anyone refuses cut the sfp.

whelan2

Bellview wrote: »

Agree completely never understand why not compulsory to remove pi and if anyone refuses cut the sfp.

i was stupid enough to think when the scheme started the country would be rid of bvd after the 3 years ....not going to happen:mad::mad::mad:

onyerbikepat

I was talking to a Vet recently about this. He was saying that there still is a lot of BVD around but not as much as before. He was saying that BVD can still circulate around a herd for a long time, especially a large herd, without the presence of a PI.
He also said I should continue to vaccinate. I had stopped last year because of the BVD scheme.
I wonder is this the advice farmers are getting from their vets - to continue vacinating.

mahoney_j

onyerbikepat wrote: »

I was talking to a Vet recently about this. He was saying that there still is a lot of BVD around but not as much as before. He was saying that BVD can still circulate around a herd for a long time, especially a large herd, without the presence of a PI.
He also said I should continue to vaccinate. I had stopped last year because of the BVD scheme.
I wonder is this the advice farmers are getting from their vets - to continue vacinating.

A dairy herd is an extremely value able one which can take years to perfect.im at end of year 3 of scheme,all clear,vaccinating and will 100% continue to.too risky not too,you don't know what's over the ditch or what wildlife are carrying.also the idiots that kept pi calves and are shedding the disease everyday.thiscscheme should of hadca compulsory element to it where pi stock had to goo or else your herd is restricted ala tb or your Sfp is withheld .we all know someone that kept up calves and itc really pisses me off to see this happening,we really are our own worst enemy's at times

ganmo

I think there would of been an issue with forcing people to dispose of animals.
Better to educate than to force, unfortunately there's always people who think they know better.

onyerbikepat

I wonder why they didn't force farmers to get rid of the PI's? Was it leglislation , I wonder?
I suppose there are enough cowboys out there who would go switching tags to poorer, cheaper calves too and just sell on the PI's to some poor unsuspecting soul. :mad:

LivInt20

onyerbikepat wrote: »

I wonder why they didn't force farmers to get rid of the PI's? Was it leglislation , I wonder?
I suppose there are enough cowboys out there who would go switching tags to poorer, cheaper calves too and just sell on the PI's to some poor unsuspecting soul. :mad:

Legislation and Budget.

Why should Government pay for something that farmers should be doing themselves.

Getting rid of PI is in every farmers best interest in the long run.

A healthy herd equals more profit.

The more progressive farmers were testing for BVD before the scheme every came in to place.

rangler1

onyerbikepat wrote: »

I wonder why they didn't force farmers to get rid of the PI's? Was it leglislation , I wonder?
I suppose there are enough cowboys out there who would go switching tags to poorer, cheaper calves too and just sell on the PI's to some poor unsuspecting soul. :mad:

A neighbour who never had a PI had to take back a weanling heifer this year that proved in calf, when she calved it was a PI calf, so both cow and calf went out of the yard pronto.
Apparently if culling PIs was compulsory the govt would have to compensate properly

greysides

rangler1 wrote: »

A neighbour who never had a PI had to take back a weanling heifer this year that proved in calf, when she calved it was a PI calf, so both cow and calf went out of the yard pronto.
Apparently if culling PIs was compulsory the govt would have to compensate properly

Yup, it's not a 'national' scheme; it's an industry-led scheme facilitated by the Dept.

whelan2

greysides wrote: »

Yup, it's not a 'national' scheme; it's an industry-led scheme facilitated by the Dept.

well while they where doing it they should have done it properly, no point half doing it

rangler1

whelan2 wrote: »

well while they where doing it they should have done it properly, no point half doing it

Kinda reinforces the opinion that's out there that farmers won't do anything unless they're compensated.
All a waste of effort now

greysides

whelan2 wrote: »

well while they where doing it they should have done it properly, no point half doing it

I'm sure they were aware of the problem. The first year the scheme was voluntary. It was only with uptake of it they were able to get legislative backup to have the second year compulsory. The government wasn't running the scheme and had no money available to compensate for a compulsary cull. Obviously none of the industry participants were going to pay out so......
what could be done?

Exports of livestock were going to suffer in the future if we did nothing as other countries were gearing up to eradicate it.

Ireland will be the laughing stock of Europe if we don't eradicate BVD. And we'll deserve to be.

moy83

greysides wrote: »

I'm sure they were aware of the problem. The first year the scheme was voluntary. It was only with uptake of it they were able to get legislative backup to have the second year compulsory. The government wasn't running the scheme and had no money available to compensate for a compulsary cull. Obviously none of the industry participants were going to pay out so......
what could be done?

Exports of livestock were going to suffer in the future if we did nothing as other countries were gearing up to eradicate it.

Ireland will be the laughing stock of Europe if we don't eradicate BVD. And we'll deserve to be.

Have any countries eradicated it yet ?

onyerbikepat

Why not have a Name And Shame? Give people plenty of warning and then name names in the Journal.:D

greysides

Germany, Sweden and Switzerland are well advanced in it's eradication as far as I know. It may even be gone in some of those countries by now.

whelan2

moy83 wrote: »

Have any countries eradicated it yet ?

and how did they do it, did they have compensation or where the farmers 100% behind the scheme?

greysides

Here's something I just came across:

A number of European countries are either in advanced stages of eradication of BVD (Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland, Shetland (part of the U.K.)) or implemented regional control programmes (France, Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, U.K.)

greysides

whelan2 wrote: »

and how did they do it, did they have compensation or where the farmers 100% behind the scheme?

Pull up a chair, pour a whiskey, puff out the cushion. Now sit down for a read for the night:

http://www.irishvetjournal.org/content/64/1/12

moy83

onyerbikepat wrote: »

Why not have a Name And Shame? Give people plenty of warning and then name names in the Journal.:D

I heard that there is a notification scheme being talked about

whelan2

greysides wrote: »

Pull up a chair, pour a whiskey, puff out the cushion. Now sit down for a read for the night:

http://www.irishvetjournal.org/content/64/1/12

i'm off to bed will look at that tomorrow;) when we have the 3 years of the scheme done do we continue testing?

greysides

Dunno, but by the time you're finished reading that............ask!

whelan2

onyerbikepat wrote: »

Why not have a Name And Shame? Give people plenty of warning and then name names in the Journal.:D

nope hit them in the pocket the only way, if no market at all for bvd+ animals they will soon realise their first loss is the best loss. Do the factories still take them? penalty on sfp or whatever they get is the only way forward

L1985

Thanks for all your posts guys dad was getting rid of the bvd calves straight away as he had heard they didn't thrive he just didn't want to get rid of the cow and didn't know she was contagious. Problem is when we test all our herd and have to get rid of some (hopefully not many as we could not afford any more loses really) and clear out the problem (we are sucklers have around 30 cows 20 weaning typically) to get back up to full strength how do we know any replacements we get in won't bring it back in? We have sold some in the past 2 years that were running with that cow and we didn't realise there might be a problem like. It's a huge risk profit wise we will have to do it but what are guys doing buying animals to minimise the risk-we usually buy at the mart? It's crazy better guidelines haven't been given-most of the farmers in our area are old timers who are even keeping the calves like!!!

greysides

When you say you had a BVD cow in the herd I'm assuming she's a PI (Persistently Infected animal) just like the calves you are calling 'BVD calves'. You need to talk to your vet in the worst possible way to get this clarified before you may send animals to the factory unnecessarily. You also need to be aware that the BVD scheme that has been on-going with the tissue tags means you should have very little testing to do.

To emphasise: You need to talk to your vet in the worst possible way.