Bovine Respiratory Disease

Cattle respiratory viruses include bovine herpesvirus type 1 (BoHV-1), bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), and Bovine parainfluenza virus 3. These viruses cause respiratory disease; BoHV-1 causes infectious bovine rhintotracheitis (IBR) and the other 2 viruses are involved in bovine respiratory disease complex (calf pneumonia).

Conventional techniques to detect these viruses can be time consuming and/or lack sensitivity; the VSU at Moredun, in conjunction with Quality Meat Scotland (QMS) is developing a real time PCR test to detect these pathogens in a single sample using this rapid and sensitive technique.

In addition to the classical presentation of IBR, BoHV-1 continues to cause atypical outbreaks of disease which have recently included severe milk drop and abortion in dairy cattle. The VSU has a PhD student investigating the differences between viruses isolated from different disease types; 11 isolates have been fully sequenced and studies are ongoing.

Click on the podcast recording below to hear Dr Kim Willoughby from Moredun describe some of the latest techniques being used to diagnose cattle respiratory diseases.