Invited Review: Economic consequences of beef cow-calf disease mismanagement: Bovine viral diarrhea virus

This research focuses on the costs associated with adopting a herd health management protocol for eradicating bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDv) from US beef cattle herds. Production and market parameters from previous literature, USDA reports, and industry experts were used within a partial budget analysis. Potential losses of $54.25/bred cow were found for cow-calf herds that do not have BVDv present (96% of US herds) and a gain of $278.28/bred cow for herds with BVDv present (4% of US herds) when assessed over a 10-yr period, and yearly cash flows were discounted to present dollars. The outcomes from this analysis are useful for industry participants and policy makers as baseline incentive levels for cow-calf producers to adopt protocols to eliminate BVDv.