Promotions

Complimentary BVDV PI Testing with Bull Breeding Soundness Exams - 2021

Rock Veterinary Clinic is excited to partner with Dan Fedders from Boehringer Ingelheim to offer free BVDV PI testing with each bull breeding soundness exam. The test is completed by drawing blood from each bull and sending it to South Dakota State University Diagnostic Lab for testing. Normally, the test costs around $5 per animal, but thanks to Boehringer Ingelheim, all testing fees will be covered. PI animals have been shown to be one of several sources for continual spread of the BVD virus.

What is a PI animal?
PI stands for persistently infected, which means that the animal will always have BVDV (Bovine Viral Diarrhea Virus) and will never clear the infection. Instead, that animal will be actively shedding BVDV on every animal that it encounters in its life.

How are PI animals created?
During the first trimester of pregnancy, if a cow is exposed to an animal with BVDV she can acquire that infection and pass it to her unborn calf as well. Because the calf is still developing its own immune system in utero, the BVDV virus cannot be cleared by the calf’s immune system. Rather, the virus becomes a part of the calf immune system and sets the calf up to shed BVDV for the rest of its life.
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