Infectious Diseases as a Cause of

Underperformance

Tutors:
Steven Van Winden and Richard Booth
Learning Outcomes
By the end of these two sessions, you should be able to

1. Appreciate and describe the clinical effect of endemic disease on

productivity and animal welfare in cattle

2. Identify and discuss the key steps in investigating endemic diseases on

farm

3. Discuss the use of herd level diagnostics to confirm the presence of

disease on a farm

4. Discuss the different options for disease control/eradication and herd

protection
 How do you define underperformance?

• What would you define as underperformance

in a beef herd?
• What would you define as underperformance
in a dairy herd?
• Discuss in your groups

5 minutes
How do you define underperformance?
What do you think??

Beef

Dairy

10 minutes
What diseases do you think of as causes of
decreased productivity in cattle?

Spend ten minutes in your groups talking about

the diseases you consider to be important to the
cattle industry.

The list might not be short! Try to rank them in

order of those you think are most to least
important.

5 minutes
What diseases do you think of as causes of
decreased productivity in cattle?

What do you think??

10 minutes
What steps might you go through to assess a
herd for the presence of endemic disease?

• Consider herd assessment vs individual animal

assessment
• Consider how to use vaccines and the issues
associated with them
• Consider herd protection/biosecurity and what
practical advice you might give to a farmer on
this issue
What steps might you go through to assess a
herd for the presence of endemic disease?

• What do you think?

– herd assessment vs individual animal
– vaccines
– herd protection/biosecurity
Your Task….
Considering the issues discussed today, work through the
following scenarios
(1 per each DL group, looks at the allocation on LEARN)

1. BVD, closed herd, free

2. BVD, herd buys in, infected
3. IBR, closed herd, infected
4. IBR, herd buys in occasionally, currently free
5. Neospora, closed herd, neospora diagnosed as a cause of
abortion last month
6. Neospora, herd occasionally buys in breeding heifers, no
current evidence of infection
7. Lepto, herd buys in occasionally but is currently free
8. Lepto, herd is closed, but you have recently diagnosed
seropositive youngstock
Each DL group to prepare a POSTER to include
to be uploaded on Padlet on LEARN

1. What clinical effects you would expect to see if the disease is present in your
herd

2. What tests you would use to investigate the herd status for your disease

3. For…
a) the free herds, discuss what biosecurity risks are present and relevant to
your disease. How will you protect your herd?
b) the infected herds, discuss how you will go about eradicating the disease
from the herd

On Friday we will go through the findings you have shared on the Padlet on
LEARN via a synchronous MS Teams meeting