New reporting feature, Information on biosecurity and an coverage update.
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Welcome to our BVDFree England Newsletter for Autumn 2019.
More than 5,000 herds have now joined BVDFree England and 1 in 3 of all breeding cattle are in your herds.
A big THANK YOU to all our farmers and vets for your continued support of the scheme.
You can see an update of our numbers, details on the new reporting feature, information on biosecurity and a reminder of the action to take when you are ready to apply for BVDFree Test Negative Herd Status below.
Statistics
Particular highlights this month include:
- 1 in 3 breeding cattle are now in BVDFree England herds.
- BVDFree can now proudly display the BVD status of more than a quarter of a million cattle.
Farmer and Vet Reports
At the beginning of October 2019 we will be releasing a new function for the BVDFree Database.
We will send quarterly reports to farmers and vets. The reports will show you what testing you have done to date and your current herd status. It will also have suggestions of what to do next.
The vet reports will list of all your farms that are members with details of their testing and where each one is on its journey to BVDFree Test Negative Herd Status.
A case study
It was great to catch up with Rob Drysdale at the recent BVDzero congress. He worked as a farm vet for over 20 years, and has a particular interest in calf health and production. Having completed a Nuffield Scholarship he turned his focus to developing a fully integrated dairy beef supply chain, The goal of Rob and his partners in StraightLine Beef is to grow quality beef that is healthy, ethical and sustainable.
High standards of care for all their cattle is at the core of StraightLine Beef. There was a BVD outbreak at one of their units in July 2017 in a batch of 50 bought in calves. Within 10 days of arrival their records showed 17 of these calves had been treated for infections including mild pneumonia, mild scouring and pyrexia. Over the next seven days test for salmonella and BVD identified a BVD problem. Further testing (a BVD PI hunt) identified one calf Persistently Infected with BVD.
From one Persistently Infected (PI) calf -
- 96% of the animals in the batch were treated for secondary infection
- Reduced DLWG (1.9kg to 1.2kg) for all animals
- Increased medicine usage
- 8% mortality level
- The eldest animal of the group was still on farm in July 2019
Rob has worked out this cost StraightLine Beef more than £4,500.
Hear more about Rob’s story in a recent interview with Vet Times and see his full BVDzero Congress presentation using the links below.
Biosecurity
As shown by Rob's example it is paramount that you take all precautions when buying animals in, and as we enter autumn we would like to remind you of how useful our database can be at sales.
As buyers or sellers keeping an eye on BVD status will help protect your herds’ health and welfare. Ask the markets about the BVD status of cattle. Cattle Persistently Infected with BVD virus are not fit for purpose and should not be sold to other farmers – if they don’t die on you (very likely) or are not killed on-farm they should only be sold direct to slaughter
Buying checklist:
- Look up the BVD status of the animal and herd from which you are purchasing on the ScotEID or BVDFree websites.
- Buy cattle that have an individual BVD virus-free status or are from farms that are CHeCS-accredited BVD-free.
- In addition to checking BVD virus status require that all animals are vaccinated or vaccinate while in quarantine.
- Avoid buying pregnant animals. Pregnant cattle may be carrying a BVD virus positive calf (PI). Buying pregnant cattle is always risky since the BVD status of the calf is unknown and can only be tested when it is born.
- If you use artificial insemination, ensure that the bull providing the semen was tested to be free from BVD virus.
- Only use bulls that are individually certified virus-free and vaccinated. If not, isolate, test for virus and if the test is negative then vaccinate.
- Isolate any cattle you bring in that are of unknown BVD status, from the rest of your herd and have them tested for virus. Only put them into your herd once you know they are clear.
- Contact your vet for further advice.
BVDFree England Registration Number
Your registration number for BVDFree England is your CPH, we are aware that some of the lab forms include a separate field for this, but we do not issue another unique identifier.
Vet Login
The vet login is a function on the BVDFree England database that allows vet practices to have a central profile, with all the holdings which have nominated the practice visible to that profile. This allows vets to see all of their holdings that have signed up as well as their results.
Vets can also sign up and then attach themselves to a practice. They will then also be able to see what the practice profile can see.
We hope this will make it easier for vets to check the BVDFree information for their farms. BVDFree is planning to release a reporting system later this year that will send regular updates and reminders to vets and farmers.
The Vet Login works in the same was as the Farmer Login and both the logins can be found here:
Need some help?
Find some really useful information on our FAQ section or contact our helpdesk and we will be happy to answer any queries you have.
Herds that have completed 2 consecutive years of testing can be assigned a BVDFree Test Negative Herd Status.
The herd’s BVD testing results will need to have been uploaded by a BVDFree lab to the database. The vet who signs the application must be accredited by BCVA as having completed the BVDFree England specific training.
The farmer and their vet will then need to submit the application to bvdfree@ahdb.org.uk to request a Test Negative Herd Status. This will be based on the results submitted and any further information requested
Watch these videos to learn more about BVD and BVDFree
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