| 99 nzdairy DAIRY SERVICES » Dairy Vets Passionate about the dairy industry Karen Phelps In the New Zealand dairy sector, bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) is a widespread infectious disease that can be hugely costly. In Mid Canterbury, Dairy Vets work proactively with dairy farmers from north of the Rakaia to the Rangitata River to minimise the risks and impacts of BVD. Nathan Back and Anna Tarver, who started Dairy Vets in 2013, lead a seven-strong vet team who are passionate about the dairy industry and focussed on improving animal health and wellbeing and providing the best possible service to clients. For Anna, who has advanced expertise in dairy cattle medicine and a professional interest in reproduction, mastitis and infectious disease, preventative health planning is definitely the recommended strategy for BVD. “One in three cattle farms in New Zealand are affected. There is simply no room for complacency with BVD.” Costs to farmers from the virus are due to persistently infected (PI) animals spreading it to others in the herd, causing early pregnancy losses. Anna says BVD works like an immune suppressor in calves. “Often when we investigate ill-thrift in calves, particularly poor doing calves post weaning, we diagnose BVD as the underlying cause.” Fortunately, easy and accurate testing is available to help control BVD. Anna says dairy farmers can easily set up a bulk milk monitoring programme for their herd and do two sets of bulk milk screenings. “That will show how much exposure cows have had to the virus and measure for the actual virus. Luckily, our PCR tests are so sensitive that we can find that one PI cow in a herd of 1000 cows. The options then would be to remove that PI cow and then weigh up the risks on-farm to decide whether to vaccinate or manage it by having a closed herd with tight biosecurity.” Dairy Vets can help farmers with control planning to ensure that any incoming animals are tested for the virus and any PI animals culled. Farmers also need to manage potential over-the-fence exposure risks. “Once we identify and remove PI animals, the key is to maintain that BVD free status through ongoing testing. The recommended gold standard is ear notch testing your calves for BVD. It gives farmers certainty that when those heifers join the herd there are no PIs in that group. Farmers can then do bulk milk testing through the season to cover all bases.” Anna says it can be hard to convince some farmers to adopt ear notch testing of calves if they haven’t had any problems with BVD. “I’d like to see more taking it up so as to avoid the significant stresses that come with BVD issues.” Vaccination against BVD is sometimes recommended if the risk of picking up infection is too high, for example if young stock are going to a runoff where there may be a number of different mobs grazing together. Dairy Vets skilled team offer flexible tailored health care plans to keep herds healthy and happy. “Our focus is on working with farmers so they can take the right action at the right time throughout the year rather than dealing with the fall-out when things go wrong.” Protect your herd and the next generation Use Bovilis® BVD for 12 months of proven fetal protection1. The longest coverage available. Exposure to BVD could mean your unborn calves become Persistently Infected (PI’s) - spreading BVD amongst your herd. It is estimated that up to 40% of dairy herds are actively infected with the BVD virus at any given time. The convenience of the longest coverage available along with ÷ÐãÔÍ×Ð dosing intervals2 means you can protect this season’s calves no matter when they are conceived. Avoid an outbreak. Ask your vet about vaccinating with Bovilis BVD or visit ÍÚáÔ×ÔÞ ÎÚ Ùå 1Following a third dose (annual vaccine) Bovilis BVD provides 12 months fetal protection. 2Interval between dose 1 (sensitiser) and dose 2 is from 4 weeks to 6 months. 3rd dose given as annual single dose. AVAILABLE ONLY UNDER VETERINARY AUTHORISATION. ACVM No’s: A011866. Schering-Plough Animal Health Ltd. Ph: 0800 800 543. www.msd-animal-health.co.nz ´ÚÛäÝÔÒÓß [ _]__ ¾ÐÝÎÖ ´Ú ºÙÎ ÃÌÓâÌä ¿» ÆIJ ÌÙÏ ÔßÞ Ìø×ÔÌßÐÞ All rights reserved.NZ-BOV-220700001 In Mid Canterbury, Dairy Vets work pro-actively with dairy farmers.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy NDc2Mzg=