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Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis
What is infectious bovine rhinotracheitis?
Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) is a cattle disease caused by the herpesvirus; bovine herpesvirus-1.
The disease has two main presentations.
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The respiratory form (IBR) which is the more common.
- The venereal forms, infectious pustular vulvovaginitis (IPV) and infectious balanoposthitis (IPB), which occur in cows and bulls respectively.
IBR is transmitted via direct contact or infected semen.
Clinical signs
The respiratory form of IBR presents as an upper respiratory tract infection with fever and additionally sometimes a marked conjunctivitis.
Outbreaks are most often seen in cattle between six and 18 months of age though all ages of cattle are susceptible.
IBR may cause abortion if susceptible cows or heifers are infected during pregnancy.
Not all cattle infected with the virus show obvious clinical signs. In the absence of secondary bacterial complications most animals recover from the disease.
Latent infection can occur and infected cattle can shed the virus intermittently.
Control
Infection can be controlled by vaccination and marker vaccines are available that allow the differentiation of vaccinated from infected cattle in antibody tests.
Geographic location
IBR is endemic in the UK and in many parts of the world, but some countries are free and there are moves in other EU countries to eradicate the disease.