Bovine coronavirus detected on most dairy farms in Europe

MSD Animal Health has presented the results of the first field study assessing the prevalence of bovine coronavirus (BCoV) on dairy farms in Europe. BCoV was detected in the respiratory tract of animals on 73% of farms, reports the Spanish veterinary portal Animal’s Health. A study conducted on 130 dairy farms in Spain, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Sweden and Slovakia revealed the presence of BoCV in the respiratory and enteral tracts of dairy cattle. It is noted that the infection was detected in the respiratory tract of cattle in 73% of herds, while all animals were seropositive for the virus. As the publication writes, nasal and fecal swabs were used to study BCoV, and specific antibodies were looked for in milk samples. As a result, the presence of the virus was confirmed in 17% of nasal and 17% of fecal samples from adult animals and in 24% of samples obtained from newborn or ...