New IBR Educational Material

UK - Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health has produced a new suite of education materials to highlight the costly financial losses associated with IBR infection in cattle herds.
calendar icon 6 November 2009
clock icon 2 minute read

"Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) is a highly contagious viral disease of cattle caused by a bovine herpes virus. Unfortunately, symptoms are often vague and sometimes the only sign of infection is a general malaise in heifers that have recently joined the herd. Yet IBR infection has the potential to cut annual milk yield by 173 litres or cause a four week delay in beef cattle reaching slaughter weight,” pointed out Ian Anderson MRCVS from Intervet/Schering-Plough.

“We’ve produced the new education materials to raise awareness of the disease and highlight how best to control this costly virus,” he added.

The range of materials includes a handy guide to IBR, which explains that 72 per cent of unvaccinated cattle herds regularly test positive for IBR. It also highlights the latent nature of the disease, explaining that once a cow is infected it remains so for life. IBR remains dormant in the animal until stress triggers clinical disease and rapid spread. Fortunately, disease control is quite straightforward and vaccination with Bovilis IBR Marker Live vaccine can help enormously to reduce circulation of IBR virus within a herd and cut the significant costs associated with infection.

Farmers interested in finding out more about IBR can obtain the disease information by calling 01908 685685. The information is also available from UK farm animal veterinary practices.

Further Reading

- Find out more information on IBR by clicking here.

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