Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD)

Welcome to the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea (BVD) section in the AFBI website. In these pages we aim to summarise all the information you might need to know about this disease, including some details on the Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland eradication programmes.

BVD is a worldwide spread disease of cattle, caused by the Bovine Viral Diarrhoea virus (BVDV).

This virus is closely related to the classical swine fever virus in pigs and the border disease virus of sheep.An increasing number of countries/regions are putting in place programmes for control and eradication of this disease, including Scotland and the Republic of Ireland.

Since the 1st January 2013, a BVD voluntary control programme has been in place in Northern Ireland changing to a compulsory programme on 1st March 2016.

All pedigree breed societies are asking their members to test their animals for BVD virus before going to sales.