Issue 15 - BVD PI Testing Advantage

Animal Profiling International continues to be committed to improving the health and welfare of cattle in our dairy industry. Individuals as heifer developers have a key role to play in making sure future cows are productive. This means keeping them healthy while they are on your property. Over the last five years we have worked with many heifer developers and understand the challenges when dealing with multiple clients and management styles and implementing new practices. The dairy industry has had a more than difficult year and thankfully there is a trend that it may be changing. In good times as well as difficult times we still need to watch for costly disease.

Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD) is a disease that continues to plague the dairy industry even though effective vaccines have been in place for years. The destruction starts with the formation of the persistently infected (PI) calf during the first gestation of pregnancy. The calf is born a PI or not. It can never become one after birth. As a calf grower you have an opportunity to identify PI calves and remove them before they can cause more damage. Three areas to consider that may cause you problems and lost dollars.

• The BVD virus is immunosuppressive. That means that it weakens the immune system of the calf and allows other diseases to have a negative effect easier. We have seen diseases like Salmonella and Mycoplasma and respiratory disease become more prevalent and difficult to treat when BVD is involved.
• By identifying a PI, the source dairy is alerted that they may have a problem. In API's program we work closely with our clients to not only solve the problem on the calf ranch, but assist the dairy operation in developing and implementing a BVD control plan if a PI calf is identified. The dairy may be incurring losses of $20-$160 per cow per year. These numbers have been reported in dairies with PIs. This is mainly due to reproduction and health losses that can be avoided by eliminating PIs.
• If you are breeding heifers and a PI is present in the pen or adjoining pen, you may be causing additional health issues and creating a reproductive problem. Identifying and removing the PI assures your clients that their efforts to control BVD have not been altered by sending them to a facility where comingling or close association with other cattle takes place.

Regards,

Bruce W. Hoffman, DVM
President
Animal Profiling International, Inc