MSD Animal Health has launched a vaccination for bovine coronavirus (BCoV), which it claims is the first on the market in the world.
BCoV is pneumoenteric virus affecting respiratory and gastrointestinal tracts, shed in both faeces and nasal discharge.
The three common syndromes associated with BCoV are neonatal calf diarrhoea, winter dysentery, and bovine respiratory disease.
The virus disturbs the mucus forming in the trachea and makes the animal more vulnerable to other bovine respiratory diseases.
BCoV
However, is BCoV an issue on Irish farms and should farmers being vaccinating calves against it? The answer according to Dr. Ronan O’Neill from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM), is yes.
Dr. O’Neill, who is the head of the virology division with DAFM, said figures show that BCoV is quite prevalent within the national herd.
The data exhibited by Dr. O’Neill showed that BCoV has a similar pattern to bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV) and other respiratory disease – but that BCoV outbreaks, or peaks, are sustained for much longer.
Where BRSV peaks last for between nine and 12 weeks, BCoV peaks were sustained for more than double this time.
But Dr. O’Neill also highlighted that BCoV works as a gateway for other respiratory disease, with 20% of the samples submitted to the department for testing having more than one virus detected.
BRSV and BCoV were the most common pairing at 21.6%, followed by BRSV and bovine parainfluenza-3 (PI3) at 19.7%.
However, BCoV was involved with the next two most-common co-detections with PI3 at 13.9% and bovine alphaherpesvirus 1 (BHV1) at 8.9%.
Vaccination
The MSD said its vaccination, Bovillis Nasalgen-C, is the first vaccine on the market to protect calves from BCoV.
Calves are vaccinated shortly after birth using intranasal administration and have full protection after five days – although a level of protection is offered straight away.
MSD recommends that it is given along with its Bovillis INtranasal RSP to ensure that maximum protection is achieved in calves.