National surveillance plan for infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) in autochthonous Italian cattle breeds: Results of first year of activity

Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR)/infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IPV) caused by Bovine alphaherpesvirus 1 (BoHV-1) is a significant disease in domestic and wild cattle. In June 2015, the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Forestry in Italy approved a national surveillance plan to control and eradicate IBR in beef cattle breeds. The objective of this study was to evaluate the results of the first year of the IBR voluntary surveillance plan in Italy. The aim of the plan is to eradicate IBR in all bovines recorded in the National Herd Book for Italian beef cattle breeds over six years. Monetary incentives are used to encourage breeders to achieve the annual seroprevalence ranges stated in the plan. A Ministerial decree states that all bovines in breeding herds and aged older than 12 months should be serologically tested. Serum samples were tested for presence of the antibody to glycoprotein E of BoHV-1 using commercially available enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays. The national herd seroprevalence was 55.49% (95% confidence interval [CI] 52.01-58.92). Of 25,121 bovines tested for antibodies against BoHV-1, 8014 were positive. The seroprevalence in animals from autochthonous Italian cattle breeds was 31.89% (95% CI 31.31-32.47). Seroprevalence was highest in Podolica cattle (55.14%; 95% CI 54.07-56.21), lowest in Maremmana cattle (9.95%; 95% CI 7.99-12.31), and intermediate in Chianina (22.01%; 95% CI 21.03-23.01), Marchigiana (24.85%; 95% CI 23.52-26.23), and Romagnola (15.60%; 95% CI 14.62-16.64) cattle. These seroprevalence rates indicate a need for intervention to decrease the inevitable severe economic losses arising from BoHV-1 infection. Although some regions in Italy have a long history of combatting BoHV-1 infection, only the province of Bolzano has eradicated IBR.