Any vets available to advise on incubation periods etc?

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  • #4750
    Purple PumpkinPurple Pumpkin
    Participant

    I was just re-listening to the episode of 8th March when the Brookfield cows got out and Pip and Tobeeeee rounded them up. According to a Welsh meat board website the incubation period is 2-20 days. The Brookfield cows didn’t get sick until 17 March, so they could have been incubating the disease on the 8th but not actively sick – but then Ruth and David have had them for about a year, so why did they suddenly become ill? Isn’t it possible the disease came from the more recently purchased Bridge farm cattle even though they got sick later? It is all rather confusing. And how did the disease somehow get up to Home Farm?

    All explanations would be very welcome – I feel the need of a veterinary equivalent of Cosmo!

    #4849
    Ellen HughesEllen Hughes
    Participant

    Hello!

    I have just finished a mammoth catch up on the Archers over April so thought I’d log in to see what people had been talking about and I saw this post!

    The problem with IBR is that it can result in latently infected animals – so animals that carry the virus and can infect other cows but do not show any signs themselves. A latently infected cow usually does not shed the virus all the time, it can be influenced by lots of environmental and immunological factors, but when the virus reactivates it will become infectious to other cows. If these cows have not been vaccinated (which you would not do routinely if you had a closed herd with all new animals coming in being checked) they will become infected and will show clinical signs (runny nose, lower milk production, abortion etc).

    Most of these animals will go on to recover from the virus but some will become latently infected and so be able to infect other animals in the future…and so the cycle continues.

    Hope that helps make sense of it! Happy to (try to!) answer any other vetty questions!

    Ellen the vet from Glasgow x

    • This reply was modified 6 years, 11 months ago by Ellen HughesEllen Hughes.
    #4912
    Purple PumpkinPurple Pumpkin
    Participant

    Fantastic stuff, thanks Ellen.

    So if you have a latent infection, is your only option to cull the animals? It seems as though vaccinating when they’re already infected won’t help remove the infection from the latently infected ones, just prevent it spreading to any uninfected herd members? If you have to write off any infected animals I can see how the cost to all affected would be quite high.

    #4913
    KosmoKosmo
    Participant

    As I recall the animals were bought last Autumn – would any farmer not have this checked before buying or are the costs disproportionate?

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