Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) is a common and costly disease in beef suckler and dairy herds worldwide. BVD leads to fertility problems in cows, death in persistently infected (PI) animals and predisposes animals of all ages to infection with other agents such as respiratory and enteric pathogens. PI animals play an important role in the transmission of the infection.
Valid diagnostics and effective disease control measures such as vaccination are available. Various European countries aim to eradicate BVD in their livestock. In Scotland, Shetland has successfully eradicated the disease.
