Fetal BVD in Cattle~For the Love of Brunie, Journey of tears

[haypoor]

Our herd of Dexter cattle were hit with Fetal BVD. It seems that people don't know too much about this disease in cattle. I know we didn't. So, this is the first part in a series of Our Journey through Fetal BVD in our Dexter herd. If you have questions, please feel free to ask them.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/844061/a_journey_through_fetal_bvd_in_our.html

Thanks, haypoor

 

[milkmaid]

TN -- "Anyone who raises cattle should be familiar with the disease. If they arent then they dont need to be raising cattle until they are." -- I'd strongly disagree with you, but then that's not uncommon, is it?

haypoor -- sounds like you're talking about what the rest of us call BVD-PI calves (PI stands for persistantly infected). You're right that it's a major problem, in fact I'm currently awaiting test results on a calf on one of my nurse cows. Had you been vaccinating your herd? And after you learned what was wrong with Brunie, have you had the new cows all ear notched and BVD-PI tested? PI animals can never be cured so if one of the three new ones are PI, you need to find her and cull her before she affects next year's calf crop.

 

[haypoor]

We had a closed herd for six years. The cattle were being sold to organic consumers that did not want the vacs. Yes, we took a terrible chance to bring in three girls.

Most people with cattle that we have talked to are surprised by the Fetal BVD. The cows appear symptomless the whole time they are sick. It's the calves and where they are in gestation that are affected.

While I appreciate your comments Master..not everyone does know about this. That's who this article and the others in the series are for..the one's who do not know.

We waited for all the calves to be born and then ran all bulls, cows and calves through and everyone got ear notched and tested. The tests are back and our herd has a 100% clean health bill. We do not have the carrier.

When contacted..the person we bought from would not contact the other fellas that were there loading out that day. If we got hit with this and do not have the carrier..then they may well have.

It is our hope to give a heads up. We bought the cattle in Iowa, August of last year. The calving started in Feb. It's not something that we would wish on anyone. So, we have opened ourselves up to comments such as those from Master in hopes of reaching those people who don't know about Fetal BVD.

haypoor

edited to add: We love our animals and won't apologize for that. You don't have to treat them like objects to raise them or butcher them. We are supposed to be good stewards to the animals..that's what we strive for. We try to help all of our animals. We tend the sick ones. To do less would make us less. You can chide us if you will, but it was my understanding that this forum was a place to share and help educate. Sometimes people that have gotten big and have been in things for a long time forget how devastating things like this are. Emotionally and financially. We are well aware of your feelings now Master. We have found that the people who are friends of the man we bought from have come after us tooth and toenail to help make sure we are ridiculed while he sits back. If you are one of them..you will not stop us from getting the word out to at least be aware of what may or may not be lurking in your herd or in the herd of the next seller that you visit.

 

[milkmaid]

I'm surprised your organic customers wouldn't even okay vaccinations. The USDA Organic program does allow vaccinations -- after all, since "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and the "cure" isn't allowed, preventing the problem is the best move you can make.

The cows may or may not show symptoms depending on if they are PI and if they have just been exposed to BVD with no vaccination history. If they are not PI themselves and have been vaccinated for BVD, they may not show symptoms when exposed to the BVD virus, but if they happen to be pregnant and the virus crosses the placental barrier, most times the cow will abort. However, sometimes the calf will instead accept the virus as "self", resulting in a persistantly infected animal that sheds the BVD virus throughout its lifetime and usually shows symptoms/ends up dying by 2 years of age. PI animals are only created by exposure to the virus in utero and only around 40-120 days of gestation, when the fetus's own immune system isn't functioning where it can fight off the virus. These PI animals are what you're calling "fetal BVD" ...in actuality there is no specific virus called Fetal BVD that causes BVD-PI calves, rather it's just exposure to one of the strains of BVD itself at the wrong time and wrong place that creates a PI animal.

I'd wonder about how you ended up with several calves with problems, and no BVD-PI cow when tested. I suppose one of the new cows may just have been infected with BVD when you brought her home, and she fought off the virus a few weeks later. Still, I would have expected to hear you say you had a PI cow. Was Brunie tested before or after putting him down? there's enough other diseases out there causing birth defects that it's possible you weren't dealing with a PI animal.

 

[milkmaid]

I have also found that many folks are clueless about PI animals; usually they're just hobby cattle raisers, or they're old cattlemen that have always just bought the vaccines their vet recommended but couldn't tell you what they're vaccinating for if their life depended on it. I may be wrong, but I think a significant portion of the regulars on the forum are familiar with BVD because it gets talked about here. The nice thing about this forum is that it allows us to learn from others and experience things without having to actually experience it ourselves. For instance, there's no fescue in my area, yet I think I'd recognize fescue toxicity if I were ever in an area with fescue.

Animals don't need to be humanized, but they do need to be treated humanely. I personally don't have a problem with humanizing animals as long as it doesn't result in me being forced to humanize MINE. Treating them humanely though is just a part of good animal management.

 

[haypoor]

Hey Milkmaid..if ya google Fetal BVD..it comes up in about three ways. Fetal BVD, Weak calf syndrome and BVD Fetal Infection.

Timing is everything. It depends on what trimester momma is in. Some die. Some abort. Some are blind. Some are affected in their nervous system and brain stem and some look great and are carriers.

Four out of eight of our calves were affected in different ways. Just none were carriers.

 

[rockridgecattle]

okay, I'm not a vet. But i have had cattle long enough to know that if a calf is infected sometime during gestation that there is a cow or a bull who is a carrier, or they came incontact with a carrier. There has to be a carrier in there somewhere. Whether it be from the herd that was bought or the herd that cattle were brought home to.
Any calf that is PI should not be kept as breeding stock. And since you do not vaccinate, I would recommend any animal that is a carrier should be quarrantened, but that is like putting the cart before the horse now. The virus has been shedded on the farm and is now there. Thus all aimals have been exposed.
If it were me i would retest in about 2-4 months and cull the carriers. I recommend a restest incase the calves will infect other animals because they shedded the virus from every opening in their little bodies, and because you do not vaccinate so all animals are at risk now.

Sorry for the confusing jargon, It happens when so little sleep for so long...brain freeze.

 

[haypoor]

Yes..there has to be a carrier animal..that is why we tested our herd. We bought three new girls and they brought it in. None tested to be the carrier..so..the carrier is still floating around at the farm we bought from or he/she got on a trailer to someone else's farm.

The testing is to find the carrier..we praise God that we are okay in that department. And yes..we made a huge error in not vaccinating for BVD. They are all vaccinated now..so we are just trying to tell people who are not aware of it..that Fetal BVD can really rock your world. And that asking for a BVD test on animals that you are wanting to buy is not a bad idea. You can vaccinate a carrier..he or she will still be a carrier.

 

[rockridgecattle]

Vaccinating a carrier is only good to protect the fetus with a ML fetal protection vaccine. But the carrier still sheds the viruses when stressed. The vaccinated cattle who are clean, have to keep up the fight of not letting the viruses get past the threshold of what they can tolerate. Once the virus load is past the threshold no amount of vaccines is going to keep that animal from showing some signs of sickness. It might be in the form of pnemonia, or what have you but you will be fighting secondary infections. The best is to cull any carriers to reduce the risk of infecting your herd any more. And not keep any carriers as breeding stock.
Yes thank God that no others are infected, but that can now change with the calves shedding the viruses. That is why i recommend you test again in a few months. By the way its going to take close to 6 weeks before any animals are protected with the vaccine. that is after both intial doses are given. It takes time for the cows to build up an immunity.
Giving a BVD carrier the vaccine can do one of three things.
1. nothing
2. make the animal real sick...then you know you have carrier
2. death...the ultimate knowing of a carrier.
But these three things depend on whether an animal is just a carrier or whether the animal is actually infected with the viruses. Kind of two different things.
If we were to find any BVD we would test all, cull all who are carriers and start again at beginning. It is the only sure way of knowing that you do not have to look over your shoulder everytime an animal gets sick.

 

[rockridgecattle]

MR. T,
If you vaccinate a cow for the first time while pregnant for BVD and everything else you are asking for trouble. Especially with the ML vaccines.

 

[milkmaid]

Vaccinating a carrier is only good to protect the fetus with a ML fetal protection vaccine. But the carrier still sheds the viruses when stressed.

RR-- A BVD carrier (aka PI animal) will ALWAYS give birth to a PI calf. No amount of vaccinating a PI animal will change that. And a PI animal always sheds the virus because its immune system recognizes the virus as "self" and the BVD virus is in every cell of its body.

 

[rockridgecattle]

you are right MM.
but vaccinating with a ML FP prior to breeding will protect the calf if the cow (clean cow)is exposed during gestation right....

 

[milkmaid]

but vaccinating with a ML FP prior to breeding will protect the calf if the cow (clean cow)is exposed during gestation right....

It should. Some vaccine manufacturers (sp?) even guarantee you won't get a PI calf.