BVD causes significant cattle welfare impacts through immunosuppression, reproductive failure, and the suffering of persistently infected calves, with national eradication programmes transforming outcomes.
BVD causes multiple distinct welfare harms. Acute BVD infection causes fever, diarrhoea, and respiratory disease. Reproductive failure from BVD causes embryonic death, foetal abnormalities, and birth of persistently infected calves. PI calves develop mucosal disease characterised by severe oral ulceration, profuse diarrhoea, and wasting causing prolonged extreme suffering before death. Immunosuppression from BVD increases susceptibility to other infections throughout the herd. National eradication programmes eliminate all these welfare harms.