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BVD - Webinar

View the recording of the BVD - Vet webinar

Topics covered

BVD Bulk tank milk result interpretation
New BVD Status product
Changing to Wet TSU's, what this means for vets
Trial for BVD testing on Wet TSU's for calves under 35 days old

BVD testing for calves – Webinar

View the recording of the BVD testing for calves Webinar

Topics covered

BVD PCR test using tissue samples
Trial data for BVD Ag ELISA & PCR testing for calves
Difference between wet & dry tissue sampling units(TSU’s)
Q & A

Johne’s disease – Webinar

View the recording of the Johne’s disease webinar

Topics covered

Johne’s disease timeline
Johne’s diagnostics testing with LIC
New data reporting for Johne’s disease
Johne’s disease research at LIC
Johne’s disease farmer success stories

MINDA Reproduction provides comprehensive information about a herd’s reproductive performance. By using MINDA Reproduction you are able to monitor the herd throughout their reproductive cycle from pre-mating through to mating and calving to identify any potential issues in a timely manner.

Download the guide to the Reproduction tile in MINDA for detailed explanations on the data available and some rules of thumb to help with your data analysis.

We are now offering a new and improved test to help you better detect mastitis in your herd.

The Mastitis Multiplex PCR test provides more information and greater accuracy at a lower cost and will replace LIC’s existing Staph. aureus PCR test.

Click here to learn more.

Johne’s disease is a chronic infection caused by a bacterium called Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). This bacterium infects the gut of cattle and other ruminant animals, causing the intestinal wall to gradually thicken and become inflamed. This results in leakage from the gut wall and prevents the animal from absorbing vital nutrients.

Johne’s disease is widespread amongst NZ dairy herds. It costs the industry between $40 million and $90 million every year in lost milk production and poor calving rates.

What are the symptoms?

Johne’s disease may lead to:

ill thrift
lower milk production
difficulty reproducing
weight loss
diarrhoea
swelling under the jaw, also known as ‘bottle jaw’.

How is it spread?

Johne’s disease is primarily spread through:

faeces
contaminated pasture
colostrum/milk
contaminated feed
contaminated water source.

Infected cows start shedding bacteria some time before clinical signs of disease appear. As the infection progresses, increasing amounts of bacteria are excreted in the faeces of heavy shedder cows.

Calves may pick up the infection in the calving paddock and remain at risk if they are exposed to faeces or effluent from the adult herd. Cows with advanced infection (both clinical and subclinical) can also transmit the bacteria to the unborn calf in utero and via colostrum or milk.

How can Johne’s disease be managed / controlled?

During the early stages of Johne’s disease, infection diagnostic tests are unreliable, so controlling it can be a challenge.

It is possible to minimise the impact of Johne’s disease by reducing the exposure of young stock to the disease. The severity of Johne’s disease in an individual (i.e., time until clinical signs develop and the amount of faecal shedding) depends on several factors including the age when infection occurred, the amount of bacteria ingested and the number of times the animal has been exposed to Johne’s disease bacteria. Therefore, any management measures that reduce exposure (e.g., avoiding effluent paddocks and paddocks grazed by the adult herd) will help limit disease spread.

Risks and control measures can vary from farm to farm. Keys to a successful risk management plan are:

eliminating the source of bacteria by testing and early removal of clinical Johne’s disease cows and other sub-clinical MAP shedders
removing susceptible calves and young stock from possible sources of infection as soon as practicable. Do not feed calves colostrum from infected cows. Pick up calves from paddock as often as possible
good farm biosecurity – ask for a Johne’s testing history when purchasing calves, heifers or adult cows.

Convenient testing

LIC offer Johne’s testing for dairy cows on herd test milk samples & blood samples to identify cows with sub-clinical or clinical Johne’s disease.

Test limitations and timing

The Antibody ELISA test detects the immune response of the animal to MAP infection. While it generally does not identify cows during early stages of subclinical infection (i.e., low-risk non-shedders or intermittent/low shedding), the test performs very well in advanced stages of Johne’s disease.

The test will identify 8-9 out of 10 cows with clinical disease, or those that are excreting large amounts of bacteria (heavy and super shedders).

You can test at any time of the year, but we recommend focusing on the second or third herd test (November-March). Although you can test at the first or fourth herd test, please note false positives may occur if:

cows have recently calved (within 7 days of herd test)
SCC is >1 million
low milk volumes - avoid testing too close to dry off or when part of the herd has dried off.

Risks

Testing for Bovine Tuberculosis (TB) before the herd test may increase the number of uninfected animals being given a suspect result in Johne’s disease ELISA testing. The risk for false positive or false high positive results may also be increased. TB tests can affect blood serum Johne’s disease ELISA, therefore any confirmation testing completed after the herd test may be impacted.

Our advice aligns with UK recommendations to leave the following gaps between your TB test date and JD ELISA test:

43 days before milk JD ELISA
71 days before blood JD ELISA.

Where possible, TB testing should be done after JD ELISA to avoid any possible issues.

For more information download the TB test interference with JD ELISA-Literature Review.

Further information

For further information, please contact LIC's Animal Health Team on 0800 436 362 or email [email protected]

Use our A2 gene test to identify cows that produce A2 milk.

About 30% of New Zealand dairy cows produce A2 milk. It contains a protein called A2 β- casein. A1 milk contains A1 β- casein, or a mix of both A1 and A2 β- casein.

Some consumers are willing to pay more for A2 milk because they believe it prevents the digestive problems they say they experience after drinking A1 milk. We do not endorse any of the claims made about A2 milk. If you want to set up an A2 herd, every animal in the herd must have the A2 gene. You must also breed with bulls that have the A2 gene.

How You Can Get A2 Test Results

Choose the option that suits you:

Do you have already DNA profiled animals?
✔ Get A2 result in 5–7 working days
Take a tissue sample and combine A2 to DNA testing?
✔ Results in 4–5 weeks
Add A2 test to herd test?
✔ Results in 10 working days
Standalone A2 test (tissue sample)?
✔ Results in 3 weeks

For information about taking samples and submitting samples, view our A2/A2 test page.

Download a PDF about A2/A2 testing.

BVD Brochure-Learn how to protect your herd from BVD

Download the BVD Animal Health Brochure and learn how to protect your herd.

Protect Your Herd from BVD

LIC offers multiple testing options to help New Zealand dairy farmers monitor and detect BVD (Bovine Viral Diarrhoea) in their herds — using milk, blood, and tissue samples.

Milk Testing Options

BVD Status Pack (Best all-in-one option)
Combines herd-level and individual cow testing across the season:

Test 1: Early-season bulk milk, testing for the BVD virus & antibody exposure levels
Test 2: Herd test milk samples for individual cow BVD status (results uploaded to MINDA as PI or NPI)
Test 3: Bulk milk follow-up to check PI animals are removed, testing for BVD virus
Test 4: Late-season bulk milk to assess antibody exposure levels

Turnaround for results:

Bulk tank milk samples -5 working days
Individual herd test samples – 7 working days from when you receive the herd test lab strip result.
Annual testing: Once signed up the pack rolls over each year

Bulk Milk BVD Monitoring Pack
Three bulk milk tests during the season to monitor your herds BVD status (before mating, 2 weeks later and then post mating)

First two samples are tested for BVD Virus (PCR) & Antibody ELISA(Ab)
Last sample is tested for Antibody ELISA(Ab) only
Helps track BVD infection status and herd immunity
Ideal for regular annual monitoring
Turnaround for results: 3-5 working days
Annual testing: Once signed up the pack rolls over each year

BVD PI Hunt

Tests individual animal milk samples to identify persistently infected (PI) animals for culling
Used if BVD virus is detected in earlier BVD bulk milk tests
There are options to test every cow or a selected list such a heifers or bottom 20% of herd.
Turnaround for results: 5-7 working days.

Blood & Tissue Testing Options

Used to:

Detect PI animals
Screen new herd additions, calves, yearlings and natural mating bulls

Three test options:

Calf BVD PCR: Calves under 35 days
BVD PCR: Animals over 35 days
BVD Antigen ELISA: Animals over 35 days

More information about BVD testing calves.

Tissue Testing:

Add BVD testing to DNA samples
Use the correct TSU (wet or dry) based on age of animal and test type. Click here for more information on how to collect and send tissue samples for standalone BVD testing, and how to combine the BVD test with DNA parentage testing.
Turnaround for results: 3–6 days depending on test selected

More information about Wet TSU’s.

How to Order

Call 0800 436 362
Talk to your LIC rep
Email completed order forms to [email protected], all animal health & DNA submissions forms listed at bottom of this page.

Resources

Download the BVD Animal Health Brochure or Info Sheet
Talk to your vet or LIC Animal Health Advisor for guidance

Milk Pregnancy Testing (MPT) is a simple, convenient & non-invasive option for non aged pregnancy diagnosis.

How it Works

Utilises herd test milk samples to detect pregnancy associated glycoproteins produced by the placenta.

Key Benefits

Detects pregnancy from 28 days after mating
Easy and convenient – no need for extra farm visits
Non-invasive – no handling or stress for cows
You can test the whole herd or a selected group (minimum of 25 cows).

Results

Results are sent to MINDA and emailed to you
You’ll receive results 5–7 working days from when the herd test lab strip is received
The emailed report will show one of three outcomes:
- Pregnant
- Re-check (needs pregnancy diagnosis confirmed by other means)
- No Pregnancy Detected.

In MINDA, results will be shown as:

Pregnant MPT
Re-check
Empty (If an animal has been tested within 28 days of their last mating, an empty result may be given).

Test Limitations

The milk pregnancy test does not age pregnancy
The milk pregnancy test accurately detects pregnancy 28 days after mating
Majority of herds will have <5% of cows in the recheck category; however up to 10% rechecks could be expected.

Risks

If a cow recently lost a pregnancy, it can take at least two weeks for pregnancy protein levels to drop following a slip. If the herd test date falls within this period this animal may still give a ‘Pregnant’ result.

Further Information

For further information, please contact the Animal Health Advisor’s team at LIC on 0800 436 362 or email [email protected]

Download a PDF about Milk Pregnancy testing.

Complete the Animal Health Sample Submission Form if you are sending blood or tissue samples to test for:

Johne’s disease in individual animals
BVD in individual animals.
Enzootic Bovine Leukosis (EBL)-Please note samples will be pooled but resulted individually

Animal Health Sample Submission form

Johne’s disease blood test

Tick Johne’s disease ELISA on the Animal Health Sample submission form to test for Johne’s disease in blood samples from individual animals.

BVD blood tests

Choose from one of four BVD blood tests:

BVD PCR — detect the virus in animals over 35 days old.
Calf PCR — detect the virus in calves less than 35 days old.
BVD antigen ELISA — detect the virus in animals over 35 days with a slightly faster turnaround time for results.
BVD antibody ELISA — test whether an animal has been exposed to the BVD virus.