Update on national bovine viral diarrhoea eradication scheme

 
The awareness of highly contagious bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) virus and its consequences within the cattle industry seem to be increasing among farmers.

It seems the drive towards England becoming a BVD-free country is becoming a realistic proposition; however, there is still a way to go.

The pressure from very successful schemes – not only in Scotland, but in other European countries, too – means England needs to keep up with the momentum of disease eradication to avoid leaving our industry lagging behind.

The disease and presence of persistently infected (PI) animals on farm results in huge economic losses in areas such as calf health, mortality and reproduction failures, so the advantages of eradicating the disease are, hopefully, becoming more evident.

BVDFree England, the voluntary national eradication scheme was launched in 2016. Since then the scheme has recorded 65,000 individual animal BVD statuses and had 1,187 holdings registered to cover 163,963 breeding cattle in England. This represents approximately 18% of both holdings and breeding cattle in England.

The database allows the upload of, and access to, individual animal BVD statuses, so farmers purchasing cattle can ensure BVD is not being brought on to their farms. Herds can also be registered and searchable as a “BVDFree registered” herd; that is, they are committing to BVD eradication and monitoring, or as Cattle Health Certification Standards (CHeCS) accredited BVD free.

Key stages

The BVDFree England project aims to eliminate BVD from herds by 2022 and, by signing up, members agree to actively engage in control and elimination, report all BVD test results to the national database and not move PI animals other than directly to slaughter.

Once signed up, the farmer and his or her vet go through the process of key stages to ensure they become BVD free, and remain so.

A step-by-step flow diagram on conducting this has been developed and widely undertaken in one form or another all over the country. This is presented as the acronym ADAM (Figure 1) by the BVDFree England initiative. These steps are:

• Assess the risk level and biosecurity on farm
• Define the farm’s BVD status
• Action plan to be put into place
• Monitoring of progress

Extensive details of this, and the testing required, can be found at www.bvdfree.org.uk

In a new aspect to the scheme, since the end of March 2018, BVDFree England offers farmers the chance to apply for BVDFree test negative herd status. This means herds that qualify for this classification can have some certification that they hold two consecutive years of negative test results and have actively progressed towards becoming free of BVD. This means all herds will fit into one of four categories – CHeCS accredited, BVDFree test negative status, BVDFree registered or BVDFree not registered – with the hope they start moving up the list.

To promote BVD control among clients, Westpoint Farm Vets set up a related initiative in autumn 2016. This was based on the ADAM approach to eradication on farm. Vets were encouraged to deepen their understanding of the step-by-step process of discovering farm BVD statuses, identifying biosecurity risks and carrying out eradication as needed.

Farmers engaging with the initiative and following the advice of their vet were encouraged to protect their herds with the incentive of 50% discounted BVD vaccines.

A total of 140 farms engaged over the course of 12 months, meaning 33,500 breeding animals were screened for BVD through the process. One in three farms identified a problem with their status through the scheme and 26 historically unvaccinated farms took up the vaccine offer after determining their BVD status and biosecurity risks. A large number of these farms are now CHeCS accredited with HiHealth Herdcare and have continued to monitor disease this year to ensure they remain BVD free.

The plan, going forward, is to further promote BVD awareness among cattle farmers, with a nominated vet in each branch acting as a BVD champion to ensure the momentum continues.

Resources

The national momentum for BVD control has been shown in vaccine sales up and down the country, with increases in BVD vaccine sales up 10% by value last year and sales of the relatively new-to-market live vaccine up by approximately 50%.

For vets wanting more guidance on the complexities of BVD control on farm and approach to testing, huge amounts of information can be found on the BVDFree website. The BCVA offers an online training course (https://bit.ly/2HrtPDg), which provides a wealth of evidence-based knowledge and a chance to become a BVD-free advisor. Additionally, www.bvdzero.com runs a BVD congress, BVD awards for case write-ups and a BVD information video channel.

So, how close are we to national BVD eradication? It seems the uptake across the country is brilliant, but a lot of work is still to be done.

It has been estimated half of farmers’ breeding cattle herds know their BVD status, so the onus is on us to continue to increase this proportion. BVDFree fits in nicely with other topical cattle health initiatives happening at the moment, with BVD eradication a very important part in both the reduction in antibiotic use on farm and the need for increased awareness of biosecurity in the prevention of TB outbreaks, and sensible purchasing habits.

In terms of uptake, it seems the keen, disease-aware farmers, particularly those with closed herds and those already CHeCS accredited, have a head start on the eradication programme and may represent a large proportion of those already signed up.

Now, a huge responsibility on vets exists to learn, engage with and promote BVD eradication to keep the momentum growing, and include those farmers who may not have BVD at the forefront of their mind. BVD is a complicated disease, but a relatively logical one to control. With a combined effort, a huge potential for progress exists.

• Reviewed by Ian Roper (BVetMed, MRCVS).