Bovine Viral Diarrhea (BVD)

BVD is a viral disease that can cause major health issues for your entire heard. Protecting both your cattle and your business starts with knowing how to treat Bovine Viral Diarrhea, how to prevent it and how to identify the early signs and symptoms of infection. Keep reading to learn everything you need to know about BVD.

Jump to Key Section

• What Is Bovine Viral Diarrhea?
• How to Identify Bovine Viral Diarrhea
• How to Treat Bovine Viral Diarrhea
• How to Prevent Bovine Viral Diarrhea
• How Our Products Can Help

What Is Bovine Viral Diarrhea?

BVD is a respiratory and reproductive virus that wreaks havoc on cattle’s immune systems and their ability to bore calves. Surprisingly, diarrhea is not the most severe symptom — the inability to reproduce poses a much more costly health issue. It can be passed on to calves at birth and has variable symptoms. The key to ensuring the health of your heard is to spot the signs of BVD early and cut off contact between healthy and infected livestock.

How to Identify Bovine Viral Diarrhea

Many symptoms indicate BVD infections in cattle, but they vary based on maturity. For baby calves, be on the lookout for the following signs:

• Ataxia (lack of voluntary muscle movements)
• Tremors
• Wide stance
• Stumbling
• Failure to nurse

Adult symptoms are vastly different than those for calves. Signs of infected adults include:

• Fever
• Loss of appetite
• Discharge from the eyes
• Nasal discharge
• Oral lesions
• Diarrhea
• Decreased milk production

How to Treat Bovine Viral Diarrhea

While this virus has no cure, practicing supportive therapies such as increasing feed and water intake will temporarily help to improve the well being of your cattle. Infected calves should be culled to prevent the spread of BVD.

How to Prevent Bovine Viral Diarrhea

You can vaccinate your heard to protect them against BVD. These vaccinations can be costly, but they can also save the lives of your livestock. While vaccines alone cannot prevent BVD entirely, they can lessen the severity of its symptoms.

Alternatively, ranchers may choose to avoid the spread of BVD by making infected cattle less infectious, thus rendering them less likely to spread the illness. Giving your cattle the right antibodies once you notice signs of BVD will decrease the degree to which they shed the virus.

How Our Products Can Help

CattlActive® is a supplement that works to prevent and treats viruses in infected cows. More specifically, CattlActive® neutralizes stomach acid and increases feed and water consumption. It’s crucial to keep your cattle fed and hydrated when they are battling bacteria and viruses.

Anytime a cow experiences stress like extreme weather changes, poor living conditions or overcrowding, the pH of their ruminal acids becomes imbalanced. This disturbance in their gut health causes a decline in their water and feed intake. If the healthy bacteria in the gut has nothing to live off of, it dies. When the “good” bacteria begin dying off, they release toxins and create even more acid. The result is a leaky stomach and diminished nervous system, which leads to a higher likelihood of catching an infection or virus.

CattlActive® is useful for producers, practitioners and your cattle. If you have any questions, contact us today!