Relationship of bovine viral diarrhea virus persistent infection to incidence of diseases on dairy farms based on bulk tank milk test by RT-PCR

The prevalence of bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV) in dairy herds in Hokkaido, Japan, was estimated by reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) using bulk tank milk samples. Sixteen out of 265 dairy herds were identified as BVDV positive, and at least one persistently infected (PI) cattle was recognized in each of the positive herds except for two herds of which, owners did not agree to examine individual cows. The proportion of positive herds with a history of BVDV PI was significantly higher than that with no history of BVDV PI (odds ratio (OR) 4.25, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.471-12.278, p = 0.004). The herds examined for BVDV were divided into two groups, high and low disease incidence groups based on the occurrence of diseases such as diarrhea, pneumonia or abortion in the past 1 year. The BVDV positive herds in the high disease incidence group were significantly more than that in the low disease incidence group (OR 2.92, CI 1.110-7.683, p = 0.024). It was observed that there were significantly (p = 0.008) more PI calves or heifers in farms of high disease incidence group than in farms of low disease incidence group. These results suggested that bulk tank milk test was available method for the detection of PI animals in dairy herds, and the existence of PI non-lactating cows in herd correlated with the incidence of diseases of the diarrhea or respiratory disorders.