Good evening everybody, and thank you for joining us for tonight's BCBA webinar. My name is Sarah, and I'll be chairing the webinar tonight. Our speaker, Jenny is happy to remain online for questions, so please type any that you may have as we go along through the webinar tonight.

If you type them into the question and answer box that you'll see on the bottom of your screen, we'll, we'll pick through them at the end of the presentation. If you have any technical difficulties, please let us know by also using the question and answer box, and we'll do our best to assist you. If you can't see the quick Q&A box, if you move your mouse, the taskbar should become visible at the bottom of the screen.

So it's my pleasure to introduce Doctor Jenny Hurl as tonight's speaker. Jenny qualified from the Royal Vet College in 2007 and is a farm vet and partner at Black Sheep Farm Health in Northumberland. She currently sits both on the BBD Free England board and also is the BCBA representative representative on the board.

Black Sheep Farm Health is very, very proactive in terms of herd health planning, and over 75% of its beef suckler and dairy farmers are currently actively testing for BVD with the aim of achieving 100% of farms testing within the next 12 months. So this makes Jenny very, very well placed to speak on tonight's topic, which is BVD Free England, an update on the National Eradication scheme and the new BVD test negative herd status. At the end of the presentation, we'll also be joined for questions by Fiona McGilvry, also from BVD Free England.

So thank you very much and over to you, Jenny. Thank you very much, Sarah, for that, that, introduction. I'll, I'll just, sort of start, cracking on.

So, the contents of, of tonight's webinar is a brief summary of the BBD Free England scheme, the individual and herd status categories, and part of that is the, new, whole herd status that's coming online and also what the future holds for, BBD Free England. The first thing is sort of why was BVD Free England set up? Well, it was, there's a real need for it, for it within the industry, and I think it's, it's, it's clear that, the government won't lead this with, legislation.

The, the industry itself has to, has to, has to lead this, and I mean, be, you know, the, the, obviously the, the negative impact on exports and, but also within Europe, I mean, as you know, obviously with our TB problems as well, we, if in some ways we are almost Europe's dirty. Neighbour if, if so many other of of European countries have eradicated BVD and are BVD free as a nation and, and we're getting left behind a little bit in, in, in not doing anything. So there's a real need for this, but also that the cost of BBD.

We were looking at, you know, 45 pounds a cow on beefeds and. So, you know, 45,000 a year for 100 cow beef herd, and, and up to 15,000 a year for a, for a 130 cow milking herd. Just the, all those losses that, that are, involved is, is massive and, and so the on-farm benefits to the, to the farmer and to the, to the farm, you know, healthier stock, healthier profits, you know, we As vets in practise, we'll have all seen BVD make a real mess on farms, you know, be it pneumonia, outbreaks, or scour outbreaks, and just the, the cost is, involved is, is massive and And a little bit of this is, is, yeah, delivering cattle free of BBD for the next generation, you know, kind of the, the, the, the, there's, there's a lot of older farmers, but there are newer farmers coming through and the idea of, of, of leaving an industry that is, is much better because it's been, it's disease-free and it's healthier and, and, and better for trade and everything else.

I, it, it is, you know, should be our, should be our aim. And, and as part of that, the, lots and lots of industry players have signed a letter, a statement of intent that they, that they realise that BVD is a big problem, and it does need something doing about and there isn't going to be in the short term any government legislation. So the, the, the, the sector itself, you know, the industry, the, the, the livestock industry is gonna have to do something about it.

Ourselves and, and vets are part of that. And, and at the moment very much AHDB are, are driving BVD free and BBC and BCVA is involved, National Beef Association, National Farmers Union, etc. And, and, and lots and lots of, of companies have, pledged this statement of intent that, that, yes, you know, something, something should be done and it's a big ask, but the aim is very much to eliminate BD.

From all cattle herds by 2022. And, and, and in some ways where England's getting left behind, you know, Scotland's been, been way out in front for a good few years with their, eradication scheme, and Wales have got off to a good start. Just recently in sort of September, October last year, and so it's, you know, there's, there's, there's a lot of work to be done, put it that way, .

But what BB for England scheme, what is it? Well, it's, it's farmers signing up, and they agree, they're agreeing to actively engage in BV control and elimination. So they're looking for BVD, they're doing something about it and they're, they're also, preventing it coming back in, looking at biosecurity, etc.

And they will report and upload all BBD test results to the national database and we will come on to this, but submitting, blood tests through, the BBD Free England paperwork to the whichever, lab vets use and that way, ensuring that that, that, that those results can be uploaded onto the, Onto the national BVD free database, and, and allow individual animal and, and or herd results to be accessible through the. And also this is, this is the biggie at the bottom here, 0.4 is members agree not to move, a PI animal persistently affecting animals other than directly to, to slaughter.

And how the scheme worked well in the simplest, the very start is to encourage farmers to simply register, and they just go online, you can either, print off a form and they can do it by, but, fill it in by hand and, and send it, or, just use the online form and, and join the scheme that way and that's completely free. And then the next step is the The Adam, and I'll go through this in a minute, but, but, it's kind of actually to start thinking about BVD on a farm and And then, and, and see what's going on, and that's taking samples, sending those labs, sending those samples to a lab, and getting them uploaded onto the BVD free database, but also sort of checking if you're buying cattle, checking that they're either coming from a BVD free holding or that they've had a, a BVD free, a BVD negative test and that they're, you know, having a look at them on the database. And charges to upload results into the database.

I know they end up being a little bit of a sticking point for farmers, but really in the grand scheme of things, they aren't that expensive. It's 25 pence per test for the antigen test, and I know some of the tissue tag testing, companies are Absorbing that cost into the price of the tags are 50p per test for antibody. And some of these farms that only have one batch of, calves will, will only be uploading 5 antibody samples potentially, which, which, you know, isn't really a lot.

It isn't a big cost. So just to wake you up, this is, we'll I'll explain why we're talking about Adam, Adam in a moment, but this is for your on-screen voting. And, and just to test out the, the voting panel for the, for the question that comes a little bit later on.

And so the question is simply, Who is your Adam? A Adam Ant, B Adam Henson, C, Adam West, or? The Adam Driver, sorry, Adam.

Oh yeah, have a look. We've got, look at that. We've got A, B, C, and E, whichever of them anyway, Adam, Adam Hanson, Adam West, or Adam Driver, if you want to all vote now, and then Sarah will, collate all those .

Results and and and tell us who who's the most popular Adam. I have a young vet that's working for us who, while we were discussing this, his first question was, who's Adam Ant? So I think, different generations.

So how are we getting on there, Sarah? Yeah, we've nearly just got a few more people left to vote. OK, so we'll, we'll stop it there.

And, Adam Henson has come out on top, with 39%. Adam Ant is, is there with 22%. So, Adam, Adam, Henson, a clear, clear favourite there.

Fair enough. And perhaps the audience and the Countryfile watchers that are, that are here tonight. So fair enough.

Right, let's crack on. So, that was to get you thinking about Adam, because, The Adam that we're talking about with BBD3 is this, this, this idea, this acronym if you like for the, for how to deal with BBD on a farm and and to get started with BBD on a farm and it's, it's to initially assess the level of security and disease risk on the farm. So what's the setup?

Is he a closed pedigree herd that just AIs and a fantastic low risk farm. Or is he, buying, anything that's cheap from the mat, and buying in calffeffers and in calf cows with calves, etc. What's the, what's the risk, etc.

The D is to define the BVD status of your herd. So, that's essentially the testing, isn't it? It's whether it's tissue type testing or Antibody testing and then action, set up an action plan for the control of BD on farm and put that in place and, a big chunk of that is probably going to be vaccination and, and, and in a way, I suppose, if not, why not?

I think the vaccination is going to be a big part of, of, of BVD, control on a farm. And then monitor progress. That's a big one, that's a big, an annual, status check.

So, so testing every year and, and, so for us with mainly beef cattle, that's going to be, testing, calves in the autumn that are over 9 months old, that are sort of weaned calves and, and testing each, each cohort each year group, if you like, a year on year and make sure that they're BVD free and they continue to be clear of BVD. So for those that work well, better with, like me that work better with pictures, we've kind of just got that in, in picture form if you like. So one, you register, 2, you have a chat and see what's going on on farm.

3, you're doing the testing. And, and then sort of the, the vaccination for 5 and, and also the, sort of, you know, action and monitor progress thereafter. OK, next question then.

So biosecurity, what is the minimum boundary gap between BVD free cattle and their neighbours? Is it 1 metre, so this, fantastic picture here of, of this, this boundary? Is it 1 metre, 2 metre, 3 metre, or 4 metre?

And I'll just, I'll just move that across. So yeah, so what is the minimum boundary gap between BVD free cattle and their neighbours? 1 metre, 2 metre.

3 metre or 4 metre? And this is a, this is a biggie, this is a, this is a tough one on, on farms, you know, the, sort of here with us in Northumberland, there's lots and lots of sort of, you know, small interconnected farms and, and, and they, you know, can, can, you know, struggle to, you know, to, to, to meet this, this boundary. OK, so people seem to be more willing to commit to an answer here.

We've got more people that have voted and we have just over 2/3 voting for 3 metres, 21% for 2 metres, and 12% for 4 metres, no votes for 1 metre. Perfect. Yeah, that's great.

So, yeah, so the answer is 3 metres, so 3 metre gap. For anyone who does a lot of sheep work, the MV, accreditation, the Primo, sheep and goat health scheme is, is 2 metres. So, so if, if, if sheep and sheep, if farms are set up for the MV accreditation, and they're, they're sort of thinking of the 2 metre.

So that's great. So let's crack on. So this is the sort of the, the, the schematic, if you like, for using Adam.

We're going back to Adam again. We keep talking about Adam. But, basically, you step one, you assess the hood, you're looking at your biosecurity vaccination, etc.

And, and, and this is kind of, this is all on the website. This is all on the BBD Free England website and it's really available for farmers to follow as well. And, and if, if, if step one's great, then we go on to step two, which is the testing.

And if there's no, PIIs, that's great. We're clear, we put an action in place, planning, in place, and then, step 4 sort of monitor for progress going forward. If we find active BVD, then we, put an action plan in place and hopefully that will include, screening for, for, for, for PI.

So doing a whole, whole PI hunt. So ideally, that'll be, testing for beef calves. That's going to be to test all the calves and therefore, you will, automatically test all the cows because, a PI cow will always give birth to a PI calf.

The, the trick with that one is to, make sure you test any cows that haven't got a calf on the ground. And then sort of, you know, go back around to testing and, and, and get clear and, and, and back to the action plan and then monitor progress going forward. And the key, so the key is, a key for eradiccating BVD is to identify and move, all PI animals, remove all PI animals from the, from the national herd.

That's the, that's the big, that's the aim, and prevent the creation of new PIs. If, if, if there are no PIs, there can be no virus circulating and, and no further PIs created, that can apply at her, herd level as well as national level. And, and yeah, I suppose if you're explaining BVD to someone, it, it, it, it can be quite complicated, you know, explaining to farmers about sort of, you know, vaccination, for instance, that we're, we're vaccinating to protect the unborn calf, etc.

But there is a quite a simple solution in that if we have no PIs, then we have no, no BVD, . So testing under the BVD scheme. So antigen testing is, and this is the tissue tag testing.

So, you're testing every calf born on the farm, including aborted calves and foetuses. So you, in order to, like what I was saying earlier, in order to test all those cows, you need to test all the calves, and I suppose a PI cow would potentially be more likely to give birth, give birth to a, either a, you know, sort of dead calf or whatever. And one way of, one trick of this in, in, if they do want to, sort of waste the tag by tagging a dead calf or whatever, you can just, sample your tissue and, your tissue into the, Into the lab, and, and, and, but the key is to get to test every, every, calf on the, on the place.

And then antibody, this is probably, the more common one for vets, and this is the way that the, the Scotland eradication scheme has, has, has, has gone down. And that's to, you, you tested, tested a group of animals. And, the main thing is to sort of find out how many different management, groups there are.

And these different management, you need a minimum of 5 from each separately managed group, and that would be sort of separate airspace. And, these need to have been together, been in that group for a minimum of 2 months in order for those antibodies to have, have circled around. And, and, and also I've had, so they've had nose to nose contact during that time, and between 9 and 18 months and to not receive any BVD vaccination.

And, and so, yeah, minimum 5 animals from each group. And, and if you've got small herds, then, then just, you know, you'd end up sort of testing if you've, if you've only got a small number of, of, of calves that are eligible between 9 and 18 months, then it's a case of doing, doing them all. And, and sometimes in order to, if you don't have enough at the right age, you end up doing, younger calves, but you accept the fact there may be a risk that you're gonna pull up, maternal antibody.

In those, in those younger calves, in those 6 to 9 months old, calves. And then all option 3 is to sample all calves 6 to 18 months old, plus animals over 18 months old that have been on the farm since birth. But obviously that I haven't had any vaccinations.

So again, that's if you, you're dealing with small numbers that, you need to sort of get enough, enough animals to, And to make up that check test. And then the whole, a whole herd screen, be a PI hunt, and, if you get them 5 or 10 check test results back and they're what I would call hutching with antibodies, so sort of 5 out of 5 or 10 out of 10 are all throwing up antibody, then there's a good chance that those animals have, have a PI. yeah, or one or more PIs in, in the herd, causing problems.

And for the BV for England, those PIs must be removed from the herd once identified. You can't keep them on the farm. And, and have them hanging around for the, for the BVD Free England scheme.

They've, they've got to go. So for the whole hairscreen for the dairy, farm, you can do a PCR so you're picking up antigen. And, but also the, the, the trick is to blood test any all the dry cows, or anyone that's not, not contributing to the bulk milk, in, into the tank, then you need to gather up them as well.

And then if, if you, if you find some positives, then they need rechecking 3 to 4 weeks later. just to confirm that they are definitely positive. And then test all calves, for 12 months after the PIs, are removed.

So, so, tissue tag testing, everything born 12 months later. So the risk is that the, you want to, you want to make sure that those PIs that you know that have been on the farm in and around haven't created more, PIs by being in, in amongst, the cows that are, pregnant and, and in the sort of early, early pregnancy. And this is probably the quickest route, and, and certainly you can test a lot of animals with the bulk milk PCR.

And, the PI spend less time on farm and you, you, you get them, you get rid of them and, and get clean, quicker, but then it is the, the more expensive route, and might be, harder to persuade farmers to, to invest all in, in one go, for your beef herd. This is blood testing all animals present, and, confirming, you know, kind of testing again, any PIs that have thrown up, recheck them 3 to 4 weeks later, make sure they haven't just been a transient virus and that they are positive. And then again, test all calves for 12 months, after PI is removed.

So again, tissue tag testing everything born in the 12 months after that, that PI is gone. And again, this is probably the quicker, the quicker route to get getting BBD free, and, and can cover, all the animals, in one go. And it's a more expensive one.

And your other option is to tag and test. And so you're just doing young stock, but again, by testing the calves, you're testing the cows. It's a cheaper way to do it.

Farmers can, farmers that are conscious of, of, of vet costs and, can sort of do it themselves and, and just send the samples, send the tags, to the lab. And then if there's a positive calf, that cow wants checking as well because there's a possibility that PI calf was was created by a PI cow if you like. It'll take longer, and the, the risk with this is you miss one.

You miss, so if you've got a cow that's had a dead calf, the risk is you're going to miss her. And if you've got a cow that's had a dead calf but had another calf set on, and then everyone forgets about that, that that wasn't her calf when it was born, there's a risk that, That you, you miss someone. And, potentially it could take you 3 years before you find a a PI if you like, and, .

They would prefer to test all animals not tested after 1 to 2 years. So, so that's, that's gathering up any that, that have been missed in terms of cows, not, not, you know, having had a dead calf, etc. It's a slower way, but it's, it is another option and it's another option that's available through BVD Free England.

And that animal's individual status is then through the tissue tag and test can be uploaded onto the BVD Free England database so that farmers can go in, have a look, put the tag number in, and, and know that that is a, that is an animal that has been tested and is BVD free and just need to put the tag number in. And, so the, this is the sort of the, the change. This is the new thing that's coming, coming online.

This is the herd status. So if we go from the bottom, so currently, so BVD3, not registered, so these are, farms that aren't currently registered on the scheme and therefore, you know, have no status when it comes to BBD. We, we must assume that they potentially have BD and have PIs running around.

We've then got the BVD free registered so that hold holdings that have registered for free with the the online . Database and their their details are in the in the in the database and they are in the process of, of, to implementing testing and, and getting started. So they're, they're the guys that are in the, it, it made a start anyway, they've got registered but they haven't got samples, .

Online and uploaded, and taken and everything, yes. And then we've got the BVD free test negative herd status. And so this is, this is the new thing.

So this is, we've been going, 2 years now, so we've got 2 years' worth of negative results uploaded. And this has been the testing's been done, . According to the BVD free guidelines, and there's been 2 consecutive years of negative results, or two, sort of, cohorts of, of, of calves, etc.

Homebred calves have been, tested and then the negative. And then, sort of the veterinary advice that, sort of the, the, the monitoring, etc. And the, the action plan has been, been put in place in terms of, preventing the BVD infection engine the herd.

So that's, that's brought in, testing both in cattle or buying cattle from a BVD free, herd or, to, and vaccination, etc. And then the other side to this is, is, the checks accredited, so that's your, your SAC pre health scheme, your Best high health, etc. So these are BB accredited free.

And they're an accredited BD free herd through the checks cattle Health scheme, and they're at the moment these two are sort of running along side by side and hopefully going forward we'll be able to add the checks BVD accredited free herds onto the BVD Free England status, but essentially these are sort of running side by side at the moment. So how to qualify for the BVD free test negative herd status. So check test, all samples, must test, I must have tested negative for the BVD antibody for the two consecutive annual tests.

And, and so we've got two clear tests, and then, or if they're tagging testing, then all calves must have tested virus negative for 2 consecutive years. Or they've done a whole herd screen and all, a whole cattle have tested BVD virus negative. If a PI has been found when they've been tissue tag testing or been doing the whole herd screen, etc.

They can apply for the herd status only after at least 12 months after a PI has been slaughtered, so removed from the farm, no longer on the farm. And following a clear check test thereafter, so that the, the PI is gone and then everything born thereafter, has also been clear, following a, a, a check test of those sort of 9 to 18 month old calves, etc. And so that's the, the, the test negative herd status.

And then how to maintain it. So new animals brought onto the farm need to be from, negative herds or checks accredited BVD herds, or they're tested for BDD virus on arrival and is in, in and isolated. And, either the check test, the annual, antibody screening, each year, or they're continuing to tag and test everything that's born in the place, including anything that's been aborted.

And that's, that's probably the difficulty one, the, the, the, the problem with the tag and test is, is that something might slip through the net, and, and by missing a calf, you might miss a, a cow potentially. And, and so that's, you know, kind of testing each year. So it's, it's running similar to the checks accredited scheme for, for anyone who's, been involved in that.

So her status application. So all of, all of this is, available on the BB Free England website. There's a sort of farmer, application and a vet and farmer declaration.

And, there's, there's a few sort of questions at the bottom of this, farm application for, for BD test negative herd status. And it's, and they're not, they're not, there's no sort of right or wrong answer in terms of sort of passing or failing the, the herd status. They're, they're more just as a guide to, encourage vets to have a, a conversation with, with farmers about sort of BVD control on the farm.

And, and then there's a declaration to, to, to sign, and they're at the bottom, sort of, you know, the checks and credited schemes in a way are still the, the, the gold standard. But as a vet involved in this, you need to declare that the testing done on farmers in accordance to the best of your knowledge, was in accordance with the BB3 guidelines so that the, the testing has, has been done, the 2 years apart, they don't test the right amount of animals, etc. And you've also had a discussion about biosecurity and, you know, and hopefully with that vaccination and, and buying in cattle, etc.

And Either testing on arrival or buying from, from, from BVD accredited free herds. And then you have also successfully completed the, the BCCVA BVD online training. Which I've, I'll come on to hear a little bit.

So the online training, there, there's 4 sections, there's 3 on BBD generally, and just to, sort of make sure everyone's, on sort of a, you know, similar level with, with their knowledge on BBD and understanding, and then there's 1 on the BBD free scheme and, and sort of, you know, what's involved and, and, and what's, What's going on, etc. And then there's a short, test, at the end, and then successful completion, you get a certificate, and, you also get to use the BB free logo at your practise. And then there's this, map with everyone who's completed the training on and your sort of, yourself and your practise will be linked to this, linked to this map.

For BCBA members, it's just 10 pounds. And for non-members, it's, it's 55 pounds to, to complete the, complete the training. So BB for England, where are we, where are we now?

So, there's currently 65,000 individual animal BVD statuses registered and uploaded to the, to the database. And there is currently 1,187 registered holdings registered on the database. Of approximately 6500, cattle holdings in England.

So we have a long way to go. We've, we've, we've made a start at that, but there is, there is a long way to go, and it's going to take a lot of, a lot of sort of work on behalf of the vets and, and getting farmers, engaged, and actually sort of testing and thinking about BVD and, And get more people, get more people registered and testing and, and get more people, hitting this, this BVD free herd status. And so currently we've got, 163, 963 breeding cattle sort of covered with the, with the scheme, if you like, and we've got approximately 900,000.

Breeding cattle, on the, on our books in, in England if you like. So again, there's, there's, there's a long way to go, but What a magical place it would be if we were, if we were BVDre England, if we were, BVD free as a nation. I think that would be fantastic.

But, you know, if, if, you know, we had 6500 registered holdings, and all the breeding cattle were covered, and, and that meant we, we had no or very little, soon to be no PIs, running around in in England, that would be, that would be, fantastic. So what's next with BVD Free England? Well, there's, there's these posters currently, getting, being produced at the moment, and, and I think they're quite good.

I think they're quite flashy and, and make people start thinking, and the hope is to, get these into auction marts, etc. And, . Basically kind of get the message out to farmers that, that, you know, check the BBD status before you buy.

Ask about BBD status and, don't, you know, don't bury their head in the sand and, but actually, actually think about BVD. And, and if anything it's a little bit like supply and demand, I think if, if demand for BVD free cattle. Drives it, then that will drive supply.

And if, you know, farmers will go into the mat and they're, they're, they're, they're, and, you know, looking for and thinking stopping thinking about the the free cattle and that's putting a premium on, on cattle bought, then. That would be fantastic. And and what a brilliant place to, what a brilliant place to be that, that, that, that the demand will drive the supply.

And so these posters are available now and if you email the BVDre at AHDB.org.uk.

And, and, an order, order yours today. As I say, I think, I think that would be great if we could, depending on how sort of, you know, which vets have a, if you're a vet practise to have a good relationship with your local auctionmar, I think these posters would probably be great in, in the local auction mart. What's next for BB Free England.

So there's a lot of people working hard behind the scenes at AHDB and, and elsewhere trying to, trying to drive the BVD Free England really, and, and just keep moving it down and, and the next thing is going to be the farmer logging. And, and farmers will be able to, sort of receive a login link and be able to, log in and get all, get access to all the test results, and, . And, and have a look what's been uploaded.

So, especially the tissue tag, the tag and test, the tag and test guides are gonna be more, will have more data if you like. They'll have more individuals uploaded, so they will be able to, you know, Have a, you know, log in and, and have a look at their, all their results. And also vets will be able to have a practise login, which again, I built it so they can access farmer test results and have a look, and so there's sort of one, place for all that, all that data.

So resources and further information, the, the BBD for org, BBDfree.org.uk is the website and there's is the, farmer, sign up to be able to join the scheme.

You can also download a form to take out to a farm. To get them to sign up. And then any questions or any help, there's, there's a, a whole sort of team at BD3 on the, on the end of the email with the, with any sort of questions.

There's also a BBD free, so there's two parts, the BBC, BBD3 board, which is what I'm part of, . Which is sort of driving the, the, the sort of new parts of the scheme and driving the scheme forward. And then there's also working alongside that is the BBD free tech group.

So the tech group tend to answer a lot of the sort of technical questions and, and any sort of queries that people have. So, they're, they're the places to, place to go for, for any further questions. And then they were also on sort of Twitter and Facebook and trying to, it'd be great if if anyone who's in charge of the practise Facebook account or Twitter account could for the Facebook if, you know, share the BV free stuff to .

To their practise account, that would be great and just, you know, increase the, increase the, the, you know, sort of football, if you like, and, and keep people, keep the, the BVDre England brand going if you like, and, and, and getting it to a wider audience. And then also I think there's a, competition running at the moment as well for the, for for BB free for uploading videos and things. And then, as I say, Bree England at the moment, sort of, you know, running alongside the, the, the checks and so the other place to go is the is the checks.co.uk.

For, for that sort of BD scheme as well. So I think, I think that's, that's pretty much, me, really. Thank you very much for your, for your attention and, and, any, questions that you may have.

But, you know, I just from a personal point of view, I think it would be really nice if England sort of, you know, there was government legislation that, that would drive, this scheme, as you know, as in Scotland and, and, and Ireland and Wales, but, but there isn't, and it is very much going to have to be industry led, and I think it's a, you know, part, there's a part to play for all of us in terms of sort of driving this forward and and engaging with farmers and it's it's a great way to, in a way to actually sort of just, just sort of, you know, start phoning clients and . And farmers and, and, and trying to get them, engaged and involved and, and getting on the farm and, and getting some, some bloods done and, and getting amongst the young stock and, and try to encourage farmers to, to start asking about BVD, and talking about BVDD at the at the mat, etc. And, and just, you know, drive this forward as, as, as an industry and, and, and try and, .

Try and push this forward and and reach our goal of 2022 being a BVD free nation and, and. And reduce all the disease that goes alongside BBD all that immunosuppression and, and, and I suppose it, it, it goes that, you know, the big, the big thing at the moment is reducing antibiotic use and I think probably BVD free and, and driving for, for a BVD free England comes in along along the same lines as that, you know, healthier cattle. Reducing loss, reducing disease, reducing the requirements for antibiotics and, and having a, a healthier livestock industry, all around, really.

So, so that's me anyway. So I think what we're gonna do is Sarah and Fiona are here and Fiona's here, with her BBD Free England hat on to ask, to answer any sort of potentially technical, BBD free England questions, so. I don't know if any questions have come through, Sarah.

Yes, we have. So thanks very much, Jenny for that really, really informative presentation. I'm sure that everybody's found that very, very useful.

I certainly have. Before we go into any questions, could you all spare 30 seconds just to complete the feedback survey that should have popped up, in your new tab browser. Depending on which device you're using, to watch the webinar, the survey doesn't always present itself.

So if that's the case, just feel free to email any feedback in using the email office at the webinar vet.com. If you're listening to the recording of this webinar, you can add comments on the website underneath the recording or email the webinar vet office as well.

So now we'll move on to questions and don't forget to keep them coming. If you enter them into the Q&A box, we'll be able to deal with them as, as they come in. We'll get through as many as we possibly can, but we've got 15 minutes.

And as Jenny mentioned, we've also got Fiona from DVD Free joining us. So this is a really, really good, opportunity to get your questions answered. So, Just to kick off, Jenny, you were just talking about how it's really important that the industry, that we drive this all together.

So you've obviously got a big uptake, in BVD testing in your practise. So I was just wondering, could you share with us what's worked well in terms of engaging with your farmers, in terms of BVD? What challenges have you faced and how have you dealt with those?

Yeah, absolutely, certainly, . So I think my practise is a little bit different, certainly having been locuming for, sort of the, 6 months last year and seen a lot of different practises in different parts of the world. My practise is a little bit different because we're very beef and sheep orientated.

So I've got one dairy herd. And they have less than just under 40 cows. So my, my work is made up of largely beef and sheep and, and of that largely beef suckler farms.

I have a few, store cattle guys and, I, so as a practise, we are very proactive. And, and we sort of bother and badger and phone and, and bother again and, and if anything, it's actually I've handed our partially sort of handed our BB free stuff over to one of our younger vets and it was a really good opportunity for him to get stuck in. And, what we did is we basically made an Excel spreadsheet of all the farms in the practise.

We then put their status in. So we've got some guys that are pedigree guys are check checks accredited, so sort of, you know, big tick there. And then we've got some guys that are store farmers, just have store cattle and fattening cattle and, and they're sort of, you know, much less likely to, engage with the BVD free stuff.

And then, we sort of the next column on the spreadsheet was, sort of, you know, current status, and then, you know, sort of testing so we can literally look and go through and, and we can go right, I'm, you know, I'm there on Tuesday. I'll, I'll mention it to him. About getting some bloods off, off some, young stock, and then for us, it's sort of, it's that time of year in the, in the autumn when the cattle come in, when the weather changes, and we start PDing, and that's the point at which we sort of start, you know, having the conversation about, you know, have you got 9 to 18 month old calves on the farm?

Have they been together for 2 months? How many batches are they in? Right, let's get some bloods and let's get some, bloods off them and, and get you onto the BVD free, England scheme.

And, and then I either print the, depending, depending on the farmer, I either print the, the form off and, and take it out for him to fill in to, to join the scheme or get them to go online and, and, and fill in. And and just probably just, yeah, just keep badgering them and I think we're probably lucky that in some ways we haven't got TB so we're all for yearly test in Paris, so. Although we're not on farm regularly doing TB testing, we don't, you know, I've, I've sort of worked in parts of the country where the The sort of TV takes all the, all the energy, all the emotions all the time and and all the effort to to sort of be dealing with and, and I can imagine it is quite hard to to then broach the conversation about BVD thereafter, but we are quite lucky in the part of the country we are working in, but it is very much been proactive and just setting on and and phoning around.

And having conversations with others, while we're there, I do sort of end every sort of potential pneumonia, case or outbreak, and every scour outbreak with what is your BVD status and, and sometimes use that as a, as a routine to, to get talking. And, and, and just sort of, you know, keep badgering them. And if, if, you know, the answer, oh, not, not, not today.

I'm, I'm a bit busy. I tend to, put a little note on the diary for 2 weeks or 4 weeks' time, or, you know, when I know that, you know, I know he's carving in March, so I know that there's going to be 9 month old calves on the farm. In the back end, so I tend to put a a note in the diary to sort of give them a ring and and just bother them and, and badger them and and and you know, get some samples off them, so.

But as I say, we are, because we're having to make our money out of beef and sheep, we are maybe, you know, having, you know, been quite proactive and, and just going and, and, and bothering, farmers and, and sort of, you know, trying to cajole them, along to, to get involved and, etc. So, so keep pestering and they'll give in eventually. Yeah, pretty much, that, that's my approach to most things in life there, so yeah.

Brilliant. OK, thank you very much. We, we'll move on to the next question.

So we've got two questions here that are similar, so I'm going to roll them into one question. And both of them relate to historic, BVD test results. So, for instance, either of test results have been taken, before BVD pre started, or if, a submission form hasn't been submitted with the samples, is it still possible to upload those historic results?

And if so, how long ago, so how far going back can this be? I think I'm about to back this into, Fiona's, Fiona's court, but, it's something that BVD3 are looking at at the moment, how we can, you know, upload. Previous results, etc.

And, and this is definitely something that the BBD board is working on at the moment. I, I'll, I'll back this one to, to Fiona for, for any, comments if, if that's all right, Fiona. Yeah, that's grand, thanks Jenny.

OK, so what I would suggest is it's very much dependent on which lab you're working with. There's a general agreement that the labs are happy to upload, historic data for up to 12 months previously. And again, there may be a charge associated with that.

So the easiest thing to do is to actually approach whichever lab you're dealing with and ask them specifically those questions, and they can give you that information. On the point of designated laboratories, which I just to nip in here, sir, sorry, sorry, I know. We'd also had a question about the submission forms from laboratories and whether samples were submitted previously on a form that wasn't a BVD free specific submission form.

Again, I would contact that that laboratory in question. And give them the details of the farmer, just so that they're happy that that farmer is registered with the scheme and that shouldn't be an issue to his, you know, to update those, to upload those results, historic results onto the database. But the best, best protocol, as I say, is to, approach the specific laboratory.

I'll just share my screen if that's OK, because I just want to show you on the homepage how to find the designated laboratory specific download forms because we were conscious that was quite a useful feature for everybody. So if you Can see my screen. There we go, so this is the home screen and if you'll see down the bottom right hand corner in the grey section, we've got a a designated laboratories option to click on.

You'll then see that we've got them all listed. So these are the laboratories that are officially allowed to upload results, laboratory results onto the BVD free national database. And you'll also be able to see what tests they offer, and then you can click on the download submission forms and get those directly.

So that's literally just going onto the home page, finding the designated laboratories option down the bottom and clicking and scrolling through to get the necessary details. So I hope that's useful if you haven't seen that before. I I just minimise that and Just leading on from that, we have another question about actually how the lab results are put up onto the website, how that's done, and who, who does it, and what, what form those results are in to make sure that nobody can sort of, edit the results at all.

Is that something you can show us as well on the website? Or is that something that's done by the labs? Fiona.

Is she there? Jenny, are you able to talk us through that? So I ask the question again.

So in terms of actually uploading the lab results onto the website, how is this done, who is able to do it, and how do we make sure that the results aren't tampered with? Sorry, yes, so the lab, only the labs can only the labs can, can upload that data. So, so yeah, not anyone can fill around with the statuses and everything.

It's very much data that's put into the, into the, into the database, via the labs, etc. So no, so, so no, no one should be able to sort of fiddle with it and alter it. It's, it's very much, data from it results from the lab and, and, and a lab submission form.

And, and, and that's what's uploaded through the lab and that's kind of what the cost is. That's the 50 pence per antibody test and 25 pence per . antigen test, etc.

So, so no, it's very much the labs that are doing it. So I didn't sort of labour on for, in terms of the herd status. The herd status is, is gonna be uploaded as, as sort of a, you know, BB free herd status based on the farmer declaration and the vet declaration and, and.

And that, that vet that is declaring that the, to the best of their knowledge, the testing has been done and been done right in terms of, sampling the right amount of animals, but also the, the vet is declaring that they have done the BVD free training and, and is in a sort of a, a BVD free accredited, vet, if you like. But no, short answer is the labs are uploading that data. That's great, thank you for clearing that up.

We, we seem to have lost Fiona, we are trying to get her back, but I have a, a sheep related question here for you, Jenny. To what extent are sheep a threat to the scheme as they can harbour the virus? Well, OK.

So yeah, very much the biggest, the, the biggest threat with BVD is a PI and it's a, it's a, it's a cow PI in terms of, of something that's wandering around, shedding huge quantities of virus from every orifice. It's in, it's in the, you know, it's in the skin, it's in the tears, it's in the saliva, it's in the urine, it's everywhere. And, and that's the biggest risk.

The next risk is, probably aborting animal that is trans transiently, infected with the virus and therefore shedding for a for a short period of time. And then after that, we then start going down the list in terms of, of fomites and, sheep and deer and everything else. And, and I would say yes, there is a risk, but it is a, a low risk and, and that goes on to the, the sort of the, the side with border disease in terms of, of, of border disease in sheep potentially been, been a risk in terms of sort of cross-species transfer.

But, have I, in the PI hunts that I have done, have I worried about sheep? I have to say. In my experience, it's sheep haven't been a problem.

We have done a PI hunt. We have found a PI. We have removed a PI, and then we have checked tested 12 months later and tissue tag tested calves, and they have gone clear.

There is a little bit of work that deer will also carry and shed BVD virus and deer in a will sort of, you know, come and be in amongst cattle and and eat at troughs and things. I think it's apparently it's quite deer species specific. I think raw deer tend to get very poorly.

With BBD virus and tend to just go lay down and, and, and die under a bush, whereas I think the, the, the red deer tend to sort of carry it and, and, and, and sort of not be overly poorly with it and will be in amongst them cattle carrying it, but. In terms of off the top of my head, this is probably beyond my my simple small practitioner brain, but, in terms of recorded cases that have been proven to be, sheep that have been the source of, you know, or IA and other such as deer, I can't, I can't, I can't recall any anyway. It, I would say it's very, very low, you know, much lower down the risk than a, than a, than a PI, cow, and a PI in on farm.

And certainly we've got the majority of our farms up here will be mixed beef and sheep farms and they'll be sort of readily mixed in amongst each other grazing, etc. And, and, and I haven't had a breakdown. That I thought was associated with sheep anyway, put it that way.

OK, thank you very much. Another question here is regarding, tag and testing. We have got Fiona back now.

What age should calves be tagged and tested? Is there a possible interaction with lostrum antibody? I think they can, they can be done at any age from birth.

The, the, the blood sampling, the, potential los antibody will interfere with, with the, the blood testing, but the, the tissue tag testing, can be done from birth. Or, you know, indeed from a, from a dead calf because it's, the virus is everywhere. It's, it's, it's been, it's been recognised as self when that embryo is developing, when that foetus was developing.

So it, it's in every part of the body, so hence it's in the, the ear tissue. So as, as far as I'm aware, I don't think there's, there's, there's a problem with that, . And I, I, I, well, I presume that if you found a, a positive with, on a tissue tagging test, then you would potentially follow it up 3 to 4 weeks later with a, a repeat, test to make sure it is definitely a PI.

And then any, any sort of strange interferences or sort of transient virus, will have cleared by that time and, and, and that animal would, would definitely be a, a, a PI or not. Fiona, have you any, any comments from the, no you, no, you're absolutely right. So, in terms of blood testing, yes, that's why we always recommend, 9 mum, 9 months minimum of age to avoid any possible complications with maternal antibodies.

But you're totally right, Jenny, Jenny, in terms of, tissue tag and test samples, you can take from any age, there's no issue with maternal antibody interference. We've actually had a comment, from an attendee here on that, on that subject. So, they've said there's some evidence of mild interference using an antigenaliser from work that's been done in Switzerland.

They recommended testing before a week of age or after 3 weeks. And George SAC has also done some work, and they haven't misdiagnosed any, but there were changes in quantitative results. So that's just an additional comment.

Matt for that. Thank you. So just, we're just coming to the end of the, the webinar, just time for one very, very quick, question here, which is actually about doing the testing.

Have you, have you found any vets that are actually, how, how, what is the willingness of vets to actually do an antibody test for BVD at a TB test? I know Jenny, you mentioned, four-yearly testing, on your patch, but is this something that you found, is, is quite commonly done, or is it quite difficult to do? Is it one way that we think we could actually start taking samples during a TB test that might help with the uptake?

Yeah, I think, to be honest, this question is what the entire Welsh scheme is based on in a way, because the whole of Wales is on annual TB testing and they have, sort of driven the Welsh PVD scheme, down that road of tissue tag testing. Sorry, testing at the, antibody testing at the, the TB test. And, and I think, yeah, absolutely, definitely, you know, you've especially anywhere that's, I mean, for yearly, we're only test, TB testing everything over 2 year old, but, for TB tests then, you know, everything.

Under, you know, down to 6 weeks old, is going to go through the, through the stocks for its TB test. So, yeah, perfect opportunity. I think certainly the, when I sort of, you know, when I was working in Wales, that was very much what we were doing sort of the, the when that batch, that correct age group batch was coming through.

We were, we were testing, you know, testing that right group for, for antibody for, for the Welsh BVD scheme. So, so yeah, absolutely, I, it sounds awful, but I would probably say. test on the first day on the testing day rather than the reading day in case there's some sort of bad news coming in terms of their TB status.

It's, it's very difficult to initiate a conversation about TB having just tagged a load of reactors and, and thoroughly spoiled a farmer's day with his TB status. So I would say, . Definitely, you know, definitely try and do it on the, on the first test.

But, but yeah, in those areas where everything's going through the, the stocks every year down to 6 weeks old, absolutely, you know, go for it and as I say, initiate the, the, the testing on, on, on TT1, perhaps, . But but yeah, for us it's just we sort of ring up and bother them and, and, and use it as an opportunity to get out on farm and and, and, and get out there in amongst young stock and . You know, even without TB testing, but yeah, great, great opportunity.

Great. Brilliant. Well, that brings us to the end of the webinar.

Now, we do have outstanding questions, but what we will be doing is emailing those to Jenny and, to Fiona, and we'll have the answers, emailed back to you. So if you have any final questions, just do pop them into the, the Q&A box now for us. So thank you very much.

Jenny, for your presentation and also Fiona for joining us and answering questions at the end, and also to everybody who's joined us for tonight's live webinar. We look forward to joining you again for you to join us again for the next BC BCVA webinar, which is scheduled for early in the summer. So thank you very much once again, and good night.