Advances in dairy Research
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Range of Diseases Affecting Dairy Cows

Stella Mcguire^{* *}Correspondence: Stella Mcguire, Managing Editor, Advances in Dairy Research, Belgium, Email:

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Editorial

The list of potential diseases affecting dairy cows is almost endless with some diseases more significant than others. Diseases may compromise animal welfare, limit productivity or add additional costs to your business. The relative impact of different diseases depends on the health status of your herd so it is advisable to work with your vet to assess your own situation. Below are the more common diseases affecting dairy cows along with clinical signs, transmission and treatment?

Bleeding calf syndrome

Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia (BNP), or Bleeding Calf Syndrome, is a highly fatal condition that can affect new born calves. As the name suggests, the symptoms of this disease are bleeding from skin, mucal membranes, and sometimes the intestines. It only affects young calves, which are under four weeks old, and mothers are usually completely healthy. While it is deadly to the calf, the disease is carried by the cow, and the symptoms are contracted through her colostrum.

Bluetongue

Bluetongue is a non-contagious, viral disease spread by biting insects. It affects species of ruminants, particularly sheep. Bluetongue causes many different symptoms in affected animals, including ulcers, sores, painful hooves, lameness and reproductive problems. Affected animals can have swelling of the tongue (“bluetongue”) which can cause breathing difficulties.

The disease occurs worldwide. In the United States, the disease occurs in the southern and western states.

Bovine Tuberculosis

Bovine TB is a disease caused by a specific type (species) of bacteria called M. bovis. Bovine TB usually affects animals such as cattle, but it can affect practically all mammals causing a general state of illness, coughing and eventual death. It can be transmitted from animals to humans as well as to other animals. M. bovis is a different type of bacteria to the bacteria M. tuberculosis, which is the type that usually, causes disease in humans. The name Tuberculosis comes from the nodules, called ‘tubercles’ which form in the lymph nodes of affected animals.

Bovine Ulcerative Mammary Dermatitis

Ulcerative mammary dermatitis is also known as mammary necrotic dermatitis, udder seborrhoea, intertrigo or foul udder. It causes lesions which have a characteristic pungent smell, a moist exudate and dermatitis which are generally at the front of udder, in front of the forequarters and next to the abdominal wall.

Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD)

Bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) is one of the biggest disease issues facing the cattle industry today costing UK farmers in total between £25-£61 m. The BVD Free England Scheme is the national, voluntary, industry-led scheme, launched on 1 July 2016 with the aim of eliminating BVD from all cattle in England by 2022. The scheme is built around a national database which is searchable for results of individual animals and herds testing for BVD under the scheme. By entering a UK tag number, an individual animal's BVD status can be found or you can search the database for a herd's BVD status using the CPH number. This provides farmers with recognition, confidence and traceability when buying and selling BVD Free cattle.