Abstract
Infection with bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is associated with a loss in productivity in cattle farms. Determining which factors influence monetary losses due to BVDV could facilitate the implementation of mitigation measures to reduce the burden of BVDV. Mixed‐effect meta‐analysis models were performed to estimate the extent to which the costs of mean annual BVDV production losses per animal may be influenced by epidemiological factors such as BVDV introduction risk, initial prevalence, viral circulation intensity and circulation duration (trial 1). Additionally, changes in mean annual BVDV production losses per animal due to specific mitigation measures (i.e., biosecurity, vaccination, testing and culling, cattle introduction or contact with neighbouring cattle herds) were analysed (trial 2). In total, 19 studies were included in the meta‐analysis to assess mean annual BVDV production losses. The mean annual direct losses were determined to be €42.14 per animal (trial 1). The multivariate meta‐regression showed that four of the previously mentioned epidemiological factors significantly influenced the mean annual BVDV production losses per animal. Indeed, the per animal costs increased to €67.19 when these four factors (trial 1) were considered as “high or moderate” compared to “low”. The meta‐regression analysis revealed that implementation of vaccination and biosecurity measures were associated with an 8%–12% and 28%–29% decrease in BVDV production losses on average, respectively, when simulated herds were compared with or without such mitigation measures (trial 2). This reduction of mean annual BVDV production losses per animal due to mitigation measures was partially counteracted when farmers brought new cattle on to farm or allowed contact with neighbouring cattle herds. The influencing mitigation factors presented here could help to guide farmers in their decision to implement mitigation strategies for the control of BVDV at farm level.
Highlights
Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is a Pestivirus related to both border disease virus (BDV) and the causative agent of classical swine fever (CSF)
In the multivariate mixed‐effect meta‐regressions, biosecurity, vaccination and cattle introduction or contact with neighbouring cattle herds were significantly associated with the change in the BVDV production losses (Table 2), whereas testing and culling was not identified as a significant factor
In order to analyse previously published studies with a specific emphasis on production losses incurred by BVDV infection, we reviewed 436 articles in full, of which 19 different articles were considered for detailed analysis
Summary
Bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is a Pestivirus related to both border disease virus (BDV) and the causative agent of classical swine fever (CSF). BVDV infections have been detected in 88 countries worldwide (Richter et al, 2019) and represent an important infectious disease in the global cattle population (Pinior & Firth, 2017; Scharnböck et al, 2018). Depending on the time and duration of infection, BVDV can cause a considerable number of direct losses, such as morbidity and mortality due to immunosuppression, reduced reproductive performance (e.g., first service conception, extended calving intervals), stillbirth and abortion, congenital deformities and malformations, growth retardation, reduced milk production and average daily weight gain (Burgstaller et al, 2016; Houe, 1999; Marschik et al, 2018; Richter et al, 2017). The economic impacts of BVDV for cattle farms have prompted many countries to implement mitigation programmes and the success of these programmes on the reduction of BVDV prevalences in the global cattle population has been reported elsewhere (Scharnböck et al, 2018)
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