The Rural Voice, 1993-10, Page 18Tony
McQuail
• Farms with Fran near Lucknow
• Past President Huron Federation of Agriculture
• Past Executive Assistant to Ontario Minister
of Agriculture
The New Democratic Agricultural platform
includes;
• A family farm stabilization program.
• Stronger marketing boards and supply
management.
• Overhaul FCC, better farm debt and finanang
options.
• Creation of farmer's pension plan.
• Promote community economic development
• Tax fairness for farmers.
• Promotion of sustainable agriculture.
• Trade policies that protect Canadian
farm families.
60 West Street,
4oit Goderich,
524-6814 1-800-668-1021
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14 THE RURAL VOICE
Diagnostics
BVD Revisited
by Dr. Ab Rehmtulla
Veterinary Laboratory Services
Huron Park
Two previous articles on Bovine
Virus Diarrhea (BVD) dealt in great
detail with the clinical aspects of the
disease, its control and preventative
measures. Readers are strongly
urged to review these articles which
appeared in February and
March 1991 issues of The
Rural Voice. As most
producers are aware,
Ontario has experienced a
rather sharp increase in
occurrence of BVD.
There have been major
outbreaks in southwestern
Ontario particularly.
Outbreaks of BVD have
also occurred in parts of
eastern and southern
Ontario. So far this year, the
disease incidence in Ontario has
been two -and -a -half times that of
the same period in 1992, resulting
in considerable financial losses to
affected producers.
In Quebec, increased losses from
BVD started last fall. All classes of
cattle have been involved including
red and white veal calves, dairy
herds, pastured beef cattle, cow -calf
and feedlot operations. Recently,
much information concerning BVD
by way of disease alerts, fact sheets,
information notes, newsletters and
producer meetings has been
disseminated. Still, much remains
to be learned regarding the current
resurgence of BVD and joint
investigation into viral serotypes
isolated from Ontario outbreaks is
underway. The purpose of this
article is to reiterate key points and
focus on some practical aspects of
disease management when
confronted with this problem.
1. First and foremost, get a
diagnosis. You will not know what
to do about it if you don't even
know what you have in the first
place. Involve your veterinary
practitioner from the very
beginning. Use the resources of
OMAF veterinarians at Livestock
Technology, Health & Nutrition and
Veterinary Laboratory Services to
investigate your problem and pin it
down to a specific definitive
diagnosis.
2. Isolate the sick individuals (ie,
those with symptoms of BVD), as
well as any animals which came in
direct contact with them, from the
healthy unexposed
animals. This will limit
spread to other cattle.
You should always work
with affected cattle last,
and be especially careful
to work with healthy
pregnant cows and heifers
first.
3. Thorough cleansing
and sanitizing may help
to prevent spread of the
virus.
4. Since "carriers" (ie, persistently
infected cattle) are the main way in
which BVD virus is maintained in a
herd, use laboratory resources at
your disposal (including university
and private laboratories) to have
your cattle blood -tested (virus
isolation) to detect these carriers
and remove them. Thereafter,
maintain a closed herd in order to
prevent BVD from coming back on
to your farm.
5. Review with your veterinarian
your vaccination protocol. If
killed vaccine is used, are animals
vaccinated twice initially? Are they
boosted annually? Are they
vaccinated at the right age, and is
vaccination strategically timed to
prevent fetal infection, and are all
manufacturer's directions for
vaccines stringently followed? Are
new purchases isolated for 3-4
weeks and blood -tested negative
before entering your herd? If you
must buy cattle, find out about any
health problems in the herds of
origin.
6. Isolate and blood test all new
cattle that you bring into your herd
and especially ensure that they are
as far away as possible from
pregnant cows and heifers.
7. Last but not the least, be sure to
Preventing
spread
requires
care