The Advance study has completely changed my appreciation of how bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) can impact a farm. I was shocked at the impact BVD has on milk production — this study shows that it is not just farms with poor fertility as a result of BVD that would benefit from vaccination.
The Advance study is the biggest European study to evaluate the impact of BVD in dairy herds using a treated herd and a control herd approach. To be as realistic as possible, the study investigated the performance of cattle on commercial dairy farms, which were endemically infected with BVD and not currently vaccinating.
Half the cattle were vaccinated with Bovela® to create a protected group, which was then compared with the unprotected control group. Animals from a number of herds throughout Europe were studied and in total, records from 1197 animals were analysed for a year, providing data from 1559 separate lactations.
The study showed that cattle in endemically infected herds and that were not protected against BVD produced up to 1.8 litres less milk per day during early lactation, even in the absence of clinical signs of BVD infection (Scmitt-van de Leemput et al, 2020).
Globally, BVD remains one of the most common and economically important diseases of cattle, often severely impacting the reproductive performance of a herd (Houe, 2003). Full and thorough biosecurity is rarely achievable in real life, which means that herds are under constant threat of BVD infecting the herd (Barrett et al, 2020; BIAH, 2020).
BVD infection affects many aspects of the cow, and while its impact on fertility, early abortion and increasing the calving interval are well known, BVD also affects growth, reduces appetite, suppresses the animal's immune system and directs energy from the diet into fighting infection. Together, these are capable of significantly reducing milk production.
While the impact of a BVD outbreak in a na- ïve herd is relatively well understood, this study found that failing to control BVD in already infected herds that do not show clinical signs of disease could cost up to 169 litres of milk per animal, per lactation (Scmitt-van de Leemput et al, 2020).
For a 200-cow milking herd, selling milk at 26 ppl, the return on investment of opting to vaccinate could be £6998.40.
Only Bovela® provides:
- Active immunisation of cattle against BVD virus types 1 and 25
- Prevention of the birth of PI calves (Meyers et al, 2007)
- 12 months duration of immunity after just one vaccine shot (Summary of Product Characteristics, 2020)
- Demonstrated stimulation of both antibody and cellular immunity, for broad protection (Platt et al, 2017)
- Protection against milk production losses during early lactation in dairy herds with BVD (Scmitt-van de Leemput et al, 2020)