‘Strong leadership’ call for BVD eradication

A senior cattle vet and infectious disease expert has urged the profession to show “strong leadership” in eradicating bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD).

Giving what he said would be his final talk, RVC emeritus professor of veterinary pathology at the RVC Joe Brownlie addressed BCVA Congress in its keynote speech.

Prof Brownlie talked delegates through his storied career spanning more than five decades, which included contributing to the development of a BVD vaccine.

Eradication programmes

Reflecting on national eradication programmes for BVD he helped to implement, he said: “We knew we could eradicate it and it was all based on detecting, eliminating [persistently infected] reservoirs.

“But we failed in England, and I’m truly disappointed that we haven’t [eradicated it], because we could have been at the front, we were at the front.

“We’re not there yet. I’m disappointed that the programmes have not made progress.”

Real leadership

Asked about eradicating BVD going forward, he said: “You need real leadership here. We’ve got all the techniques, we’ve got vaccines if we need them, we’ve got very good diagnostics and we know all about the pathogenesis.

“We can do it and we should be doing it. What we need is strong leadership and a clear process of going ahead to do it.”

He argued it would be “cost-effective” for farmers, who “will benefit hugely from not having it”.

Prof Brownlie concluded: “Everybody’s got to do it and that’s the difference between control and eradication. Eradication is brave, but the rewards are huge.

“It’d be a great accolade for our profession to have got rid of another disease.”