SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – Saskatchewan’s chief veterinary officer has commended the province’s cow-calf producers for wanting to raise awareness of bovine viral diarrhea.
The Saskatchewan Stock Growers Association passed a resolution at its June annual meeting to lobby the provincial government for a BVD awareness strategy.
Another resolution asked the Canadian Cattle Identification Agency to work with industry to return BVD information to producers.
Dr. Greg Douglas said half of western Canadian beef herds have been exposed to the virus, resulting in costs of $10 to $60 per beef cow. A recent study found natural infection in 44 percent of herds.
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The losses are difficult to measure because they can manifest themselves in different ways: reproductive losses, respiratory problems or animals that don’t do well.
Affected calves that look normal can be unwittingly imported into a herd, Douglas said.
Proper vaccination and biosecurity can control the disease, but it continues to plague livestock producers around the world.
Norway, Finland, Sweden and Denmark have control programs and are nearly BVD-free. Austria rid itself of the virus in 2004.
The United States has voluntary control programs.
Douglas said the Saskatchewan government will take its direction from producers on what kind of control they want.
“We probably need to sit down and be specific,” he said in an interview. “We need to talk about what it’s going to cost and who it would impact.”
Identifying and removing infected animals and implementing an effective vaccination program are critical control measures. As well, verifying the health status of new animals entering the herd, particularly bred females, is a must.
Persistently infected animals will never be cured and will constantly shed the virus, even when vaccinated.
Some SSGA members said feedlots could help control efforts by identifying infected animals and contacting the CCIA with the tag number. The agency could then ensure that information goes back to the original owner.
“We own the tool that could get BVD cleaned up,” said one member.
Local CCIA producer support representative Nick Anderson said the responsibility might be more appropriately handed to the industry and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency as a regulator.
SSGA director Lloyd Thompson said producers must make it clear they want CCIA to have a mandate to help control BVD.
Meanwhile, Douglas said Canada’s policy to eliminate anaplasmosis is under discussion.
“In theory, it’s a production related disease, but we’re certainly not seeing that in Canada,” he said.
“Even with the outbreak that we had in Manitoba, there’s only one clinical case so it’s a pretty minor blip in terms of the larger disease situation.
“Producers face a lot of disease, from respiratory diseases to scouring type diseases, and this one should not even almost be on their radar.”
Douglas said officials are still trying to understand to what degree ticks are carrying the disease and how wildlife might be spreading it. Ticks are moving further north in North America, which will lead to more tick-borne diseases in general, he said.
There is no way to control the organisms within the ticks, he added.
Infected animals go to slaughter because there is no human health risk. Manitoba officials have found about 275 positive cases since 2009.
There are different types of anaplasmosis. A dog in Saskatchewan was recently diagnosed with both anaplasmosis and Lyme disease from ticks.
