IBR POLICY GUIDELINES AND SALE RULES.
T
he BSCS has championed about health very strongly in the past 6 years and carries the phrase “promoting Health in breeding cattle” in all our advertising and promotional material. There was of course some resistance in 2010 and 2011 when the major sales rules on BVD and Johnes were introduced and also that all vendors be members of CHeCS approved schemes. So where has this lead us to date, in the past 5 years we have the highest average price increases across all breeds at Stirling and we continually have the highest clearance rates at Stirling, we have sold more bulls than the Charolais twice in this period, October 2013 and February 2016, something that was never achieved during the so called heydays of the 80s and 90s. Clearly this was not all down to Health Status, the cattle the breeders are producing have improved and the breed marketing strategy has improved and all these things are part of the “total package” and have driven the breed forward. As a Society IBR was the next logical disease to tackle, albeit with full knowledge of the complexity of the disease. We feel it is a vital step for all members to find out what their individual IBR status is - you cannot manage it if you don’t measure. Whilst there are still a few AI centres that will purchase bulls from a market the Society felt it was completely wrong to have all bulls tested and vaccinated and therefore take this potential sale opportunity away from breeders, regardless of how small it might be at this time. Between 80 and 90% of bulls sold at pedigree sales enter the commercial herd. There is no reason why these bulls should not also undergo the same vaccination, quarantine and test protocol. So the decision was made to start with heifers only, a far higher % of heifers sold through Society Sales remain in pedigree herds than bulls, therefore it was logical to try and protect the expanding herd or the new herd, whilst at the same time we are fully aware that we are not
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guaranteeing IBR free cattle, however we are reducing the risk and any action to reduce the risk should be encouraged. In the future this rule might be applied to bulls as well. Around 60% of heifers sold at society sales will go to pedigree herds, therefore a pedigree breeder wishing to establish or expand their herd and maintain a high health status can buy cattle with the best chance (but no guarantee) they are free from IBR and protected. The purchaser should seek comfort from purchasing stock that has been vaccinated with a marker inactivated vaccine, been blood tested clear of wild type IBR and has remained in quarantine since that date. The cattle cannot be presented as IBR free. This is deemed as the best that can be done to minimise the risk of a purchaser buying in IBR into his herd. For the avoidance of doubt a heifer will remain a heifer until she calves and becomes a calved heifer, therefore the rule applies to all maiden and in calf heifers. Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) is a Bovine Herpes Virus. As with all Herpes viruses, once an animal has become infected, it remains infected for life, despite the development of a detectable immune response. The virus survives as a latent infection in nervous tissue and can be shed at any time especially when the animal is stressed. Cattle are the main source of the virus, virtually all farms with an IBR problem have bought it in. The main source of the virus is not animals with disease but animals that have recovered from disease, as these cattle still have the virus in their body (they are ‘latently’ infected). You should not buy antibody positive cattle if you are IBR free. Movement of such animals into a herd is often the source of new infections. Vaccination is an effective means of control, but this does not stop infected animals from shedding the virus at a later date. The aim of vaccination is