BVD eradication in Switzerland – A new approach

P. Presi , D. Heim

Diverse concepts for BVD eradication or control have been applied in several countries with varying success. Results of previous studies conducted in Switzerland have shown that the prevalence of antibody-positive animals is high and that BVDV is wide spread in the country causing serious economic losses. A new approach to eradicate BVD in the cattle population in Switzerland was chosen. It consists in testing the whole Swiss cattle population for virus detection in a short period of time, without initial antibody screening. Identified persistently infected (PI) animals have to be slaughtered, and new herd infections should be avoided by movement restrictions. Ear-notches are collected using special tags for labeling the animals, and are analyzed using ELISA or rtRT-PCR Methods. Confirmatory tests if needed are performed on blood samples using rtRT-PCR. The eradication program is divided in four phases: 1) Pre-pasturing phase: all young bovines going to transhumance in summer have to be negative tested before. 2) Initial phase: all non-tested bovines have to be tested. Movement restrictions are effective at the same time. 3) Calves phase: all new-borne calves have to be tested 4) Surveillance phase: several strategies will be compared using a modeling approach.

Mots clés: Bovine viral diarrhea; eradication; Switzerland; PI animals

P. Presi, D. Heim. BVD eradication in Switzerland – A new approach. Veterinary Microbiology, 2010, 142 (1-2), pp.137. ⟨10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.09.054⟩. ⟨hal-00578410⟩