About Us

BVD Free New Zealand is a growing community of farmers, veterinarians, researchers, and industry stakeholders who are working together to eliminate BVD from New Zealand cattle farms for good.

History of BVD Free

1960 ➞ 2005

BVD was first recognised in New Zealand in the 1960s through a case report of mucosal disease-like clinical signs in a herd of cattle. Apart from a few limited research studies in the early 1990s and 2000s, there was little formally published research work about the impacts of BVD on the New Zealand cattle until almost 50 years after it was identified.

In 2005, a group of veterinarians under the umbrella of the New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA) put together a BVD Symposium in Wellington to update veterinarians on the latest information about BVD in New Zealand and abroad. A major focus of the symposium was on the BVD eradication programmes launched in several Scandinavian countries and it was decided at the conclusion of the symposium to form a national BVD Steering Committee chaired by Dr. John Pickering to determine whether BVD eradication would be feasible for New Zealand.

Despite growing evidence of the economic impacts of BVD on New Zealand cattle farms, the BVD Steering Committee concluded that there were too many barriers related to the lack of consensus among veterinarians about the best way to control BVD, poor farmer awareness about the presence of disease in their herds, and few economical options for conducting BVD screening tests in beef and dairy herds.

2005 ➞ 2010

From 2005 to 2010, the BVD Steering Committee drew upon the considerable clinical and technical expertise of its members to develop standard operating procedures for controlling BVD in beef and dairy herds, which were made publicly available through www.controlbvd.org.nz as well as industry publications and extension roadshows. In parallel with this work, many talks were also delivered to farmer groups and breed societies to emphasise the importance of testing and vaccinating breeding bulls. The BVD Steering Committee also developed certificates that could be used to verify the virus and vaccination status of bulls at the time of sale.

By 2010, there were also robust protocols for conducting BVD diagnostic testing of bulk milk samples in dairy herds and PCR technology to allow more cost-effective detection of PI animals in large groups. The Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) began offering bulk milk BVD testing packages, which received considerable uptake with dairy farmers greatly increasing awareness of the disease.

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2010 ➞ 2015

In late 2010, John Pickering stepped down as chair of the BVD Steering Committee and Roger Ellison stepped into this role. While significant gains had been made over the previous 5 years, the BVD Steering Committee also recognised the need for more intensive efforts to get New Zealand veterinarians on board with making consistent recommendations about BVD control. In 2011, MSD Animal Health partnered with the BVD Steering Committee to help co-design BVD Toolkits for beef and dairy herds with considerable input from a working group of farmers and veterinarians.

A series of well-attended roadshows were held in 2011 and 2014 to make veterinarians more aware of the available resources and to continue providing updates about the latest advances in BVD research. During this time period, the diagnostic laboratories also developed a pooled serum antibody test as an inexpensive means of screening beef cattle herds. The implementation of the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) system was also implemented in New Zealand, which presented the possibility of establishing a national BVD to support disease control in New Zealand.

2015 ➞ Present

At a BVD Steering Committee meeting in Palmerston North in late 2015, the group reached the consensus that New Zealand now had the appropriate technical capacity to consider implementing a coordinated national control programme, but that more research was needed to establish a business case for the different potential options. Recognising the importance of BVD to the New Zealand cattle industries, the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI, AGMARGT, Zoetis, MSD Animal Health, and Massey University joined forces to co-fund BVD Free New Zealand research project, which has been running since 2017 to fill in the remaining knowledge gaps to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of BVD control programmes

Despite significant disruptions due to the Mycoplasma bovis, the research findings demonstrated that BVD was still costing industry more than $150 million per year in direct production losses and could be eradicated cost-effectively within 10 years using strategically implemented testing and vaccination programmes combined with improved on-farm biosecurity. In late 2019, Roger Ellison stepped down as chair and Andrew Weir stepped into this role. Presentation of the final results to industry in 2020 was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic, but the project is still anticipated to finished by December 31.

BVD Steering Committee

Members of the BVD Steering Committee are veterinary technical experts from private practice, academia, and industry who meet regularly to review the science behind the current recommendations for BVD control in New Zealand and to communicate the findings to stakeholder groups.