Objectives
To explore the genetic diversity of circulating BVD viral strains and to compare the viral loads from transiently infected animals against PI animals for diagnostic purposes.
Dates
Open 1st February 2019 to 31st December 2019
Entries
Each laboratory accession form submitted will earn 1 entry into the prize draw.
Eligibility
- Veterinarians must be registered to practice with the Veterinary Council of New Zealand (VCNZ)
- Farmers must own or manage cattle herds that are registered in the National Animal Identification and Tracing (NAIT) system. This includes commercial dairy herds, commercial beef herds, graziers, heifer rearers, and lifestyle block owners.
Instructions
Getting involved is easy! If you are on farm to collect blood, tissue, and/or milk samples for BVD virus testing just ask permission from the farmer and place a BVD Free Sticker on the front of the laboratory submission form. Samples can be submitted to any of the four major commercial diagnostic laboratories (Gribbles, IDEXX, LIC, or SVS).
The herd NAIT or MINDA number must be recorded on the sticker and the veterinarian/clinic name must be recorded on the submission form to receive an entry into the prize draw. Each laboratory accession form submitted will earn an extra entry into the random prize draw.
All information and results shared with the BVD Free project will be treated with strict confidentiality
Need more stickers?
Each veterinary clinic should have received a mailed information pack with copies of the stickers. If you need more, either e-mail us BVDFreeNZ@gmail.com and we'll mail more out or you can downloaded the sticker template to print your own.
Why is this research important?
Performing genetic sequencing on BVD viral strains from across the country can give us valuable information about how the disease spreads within and between cattle herds. With samples from transiently infected animals and PI animals, we can also look at using different cut-off values for the viral loads in each sample to help predict the animal’s true BVD status from a single test rather than waiting 3-4 weeks for retesting to be completed.
Information Sheet
Summary details about the 'Share Your Lab Samples' Challenge can be found by downloading the Information Sheet below.
