A roadshow being staged in regional centres across New South Wales this week will explore options open to beef producers for the effective management and prevention of pestivirus, otherwise known as BVDV.

Speaking at the seminars will be Esperance, WA-based veterinarian, Dr Enoch Bergman, known nationally as a vigorous campaigner for more effective and widespread management of the beef industry’s most significant and costly reproductive disease.

The workshops follow a series of earlier meetings in Victoria, Tasmania and southern NSW.

The meetings (full itinerary and venues at bottom of page) will be held in association with local large animal vet practises in each location, and are supported by Idexx Laboratories, which provides testing kits for ear-notch BVDV testing and BVDV antibody testing.  

Dr Bergman was a member of the industry’s BVDV technical working group, supported by Pfizer Animal Health, which pioneered many of the management strategies now being advocated across the beef industry.

During presentations, he will outline the principles contained in his recently completed BVDV management guidelines, designed as a step-through for beef producers to cost-effectively and efficiently manage for BVDV in their herds.  

The guidelines are written with more closely-managed herds in mind, rather than northern Australia’s extensive herds where management is not as intense, Dr Bergman said. Different approaches can be recommended in these extensive management regions, he said.

In essence, his guidelines involve dealing with each management group within a herd to manage the disease systematically. This involves, in rotation:

• Testing new introductions, or to rule in or out PI animals
• Isolating PIs (quarantining positive cattle, retesting high-value cattle at three weeks, and culling or euthanasing the rest)
• Protecting: Working with your vet to coordinate a suitable management program for your particular circumstances.

Using just one practical example from the guidelines, if a producer has a group of 100 heifers, and he/she wants to know if there is a PI (Persistently Infected) animal present in that group, it is not necessary to ear-notch  every animal. Instead, a blood test of a small proportion of the heifers to look for antibodies is all that is required. That’s because if there is a PI animal present, and the heifers have been run together as a mob, that carrier has had the opportunity to give its cohorts BVDV, which they will get over, and be left with antibodies.

If the antibody bloodtest shows the sampled animals are highly immune, it means there is probably a PI within the group. In this case, they will not benefit from vaccination. However it is probably going to be cost-effective to ear-notch the entire group, to isolate and remove the PI.

The reason for doing that is that even though she is no longer a threat to her own sisters, she (and her progeny) represent an on-going threat to other management groups on the property, and will affect the calves of her sisters’ siblings.

She also represents a threat to other management groups across the fence, that might not have had exposure to pesti. The reality is that the bigger the property, the more likely it is that some management groups may not have immunity to pestivirus.

A full explanation of Dr Bergman’ recommendations for BVDV management can be viewed here.

Australian producers are beginning to appreciate that the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV) is indeed one of the most economically significant diseases present across the beef industry.

BVDV is unique in the way it assures its own survival on properties. BVDV is almost exclusively transmitted by carrier animals. These carriers are persistently infected with the virus after having survived foetal infection following exposure via their mother during the first to fourth month of gestation.

These PI animals are responsible for future BVDV infections, should they come in contact with a previously non-immune cow whilst she is pregnant from one to four months, another PI may be born. Less commonly, should a female PI produce a live calf, the calf will invariably be another PI.

NSW pestivirus roadshow itinerary:

• Tuesday 28 Aug, 6.30pm at The Imperial Hotel Bowral
• Wednesday 29 Aug, 11.30am at the Bomaderry Bowling Club
• Wednesday 29 Aug, 7.00pm at The Bodalla Arms Hotel
• Thursday 30 Aug, 10.30am at Club Bega
• Thursday 30 Aug, 7.00pm at Yass (venue to be confirmed)
• Friday 31 Aug, Noon, lunch at West Dubbo Bowling Club
• Friday 31 Aug, 5.30pm Vet Meeting at Blayney Veterinary Hospital

Contact for the meetings is alison-kelleher@idexx.com ph 0407 375 002

A second pestivirus roadshow is planned for Queensland later this year. Details will appear on Beef Central as the program is finalised.