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. 2018 Jan 6;14(1):8.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-017-1324-9.

Prevalence of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), Bovine Herpes Virus 1 (BHV 1), Leptospirosis and Neosporosis, and associated risk factors in 161 Irish beef herds

Damien Barrett  1 , Mervyn Parr  2 , John Fagan  3 , Alan Johnson  4 , Jamie Tratalos  5 , Francis Lively  6 , Michael Diskin  7 , David Kenny  2
Affiliations

Prevalence of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), Bovine Herpes Virus 1 (BHV 1), Leptospirosis and Neosporosis, and associated risk factors in 161 Irish beef herds

Damien Barrett et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: There are limited data available, in Ireland or elsewhere, to determine the extent of exposure to various endemic diseases among beef cows and factors associated with exposure to causative pathogens. The objectives of this study were to determine the herd and within herd prevalence of Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), Bovine Herpes Virus 1 (BHV-1), Leptospirosis and Neosporosis in a large scale study of commercial beef herds on the island of Ireland, and to examine herd level factors associated with exposure to these pathogens in these herds.

Results: The average number of cows tested per herd was 35.5 (median 30). Herd level seroprevalence to Bovine Herpesvirus-1(BHV-1), Bovine Viral-Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), Leptospirosis and Neosporosis was 90%, 100%, 91% and 67%, respectively, while the mean within herd prevalence for the these pathogens was 40%, 77.7%, 65.7% and 5.7%, respectively. The study confirms that the level of seroconversion for the four pathogens of interest increases with herd size. There was also evidence that exposure to one pathogen may increase the risk of exposure to another pathogen.

Conclusions: Herd level seroprevalences were in excess of 90% for BVDV, BHV-1 and Leptosporosis. Larger herds were subject to increased exposure to disease pathogens. This study suggests that exposure to several pathogens may be associated with the further exposure to other pathogens.

Keywords: BHV-1; BVDV; Beef cow herds; Herd size; Leptospirosis; Neosporosis; Pathogen associations.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval

All experimental procedures involving animals were licensed by the Irish Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA). Protocols were conducted in accordance with the Cruelty to Animals Act (Ireland 1876), as amended by European Communities regulations 2002 and 2005) and the European Community Directive 86/609/EC and were sanctioned by the Teagasc Animal Ethics Committee. Informed verbal consent was obtained from the owners of the cattle sampled for this study, in accordance with the licensing protocols, which were overseen by the Teagasc Animal Ethics Committee.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Geographical spread of the regions employed in the study
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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