Association of clinical signs after acute Schmallenberg virus infection with milk production and fertility in Swiss dairy cows

Abstract

Since its first occurrence in August 2011 in Germany and the Netherlands, the Schmallenberg virus (SBV) spread rapidly across Europe, where it caused production losses and abortions in ruminants as well as congenital malformations in the offspring of affected animals. Several studies have investigated the impact of SBV on fertility and production parameters in dairy cows at herd level. However, the impact of clinical disease at the animal level remained undetermined. This study aimed at estimating the impact of clinical disease during and after an infection with SBV on production and fertility parameters in individual Swiss dairy cows. Sixty-seven case and twenty-four control herds were selected according to whether cows had been showing clinical signs indicative of SBV during the epidemic from July to December 2012 in Switzerland. Of these 91 farms, production and fertility data from 388 cows with clinical signs from case herds were collected over a time period of four years, and compared to data from 932 cows without clinical signs originating from case or control herds. Milk yield, somatic cell count, number of inseminations and non-return at day 56 were analysed by means of hierarchical multivariable regression analysis. A significant drop in milk yield was observed in all groups during the SBV epidemic compared to the time before the infection, which amounted to 1.9kg per test day for clinical animals, 1.1kg for non-clinical animals from case herds and 0.6kg for non-clinical animals from control herds. A prolonged effect on milk yield was observed in clinical cows for about one year, suggesting that animals with clinical disease might not return to their previous milk production level in the current lactation after an acute infection with SBV. Clinical animals showed a significantly higher somatic cell count during the epidemic compared to the time before the infection. The number of inseminations per cow and production cycle was higher for clinical animals during the epidemic compared to the time periods before and after, but not significantly higher than for non-clinical animals from case and control herds. No difference regarding non-return at day 56 was found. Although the overall impact of the SBV epidemic in Switzerland was limited, the consequences could be substantial in farms with a high prevalence of clinical disease.

Keywords: Cattle; Impact; Insemination; Milk yield; Non-return; Symptom.