Difficulties arising from the variety of testing schemes used for bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV)

Globally, the eradication of bovine viral diarrhoea virus (BVDV) is still in its infancy, but eradication has been, or is being, adopted by several countries or regions. Comparisons between countries’ schemes allow others to assess best practice, and aggregating published results from eradication schemes provides greater statistical power when analysing data. Aggregating data requires that results derived from different testing schemes be calibrated against one another. The authors aimed to evaluate whether relationships between published BVDV test results could be created and present the outcome of a systematic literature review following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The results are tabulated, providing a summary of papers where there is potential cross-calibration and a summary of the obstacles preventing such data aggregation. Although differences in measuring BVDV present barriers to academic progress, they may also affect progress within individual eradication schemes. The authors examined the time taken to retest following an initial antibody BVDV test in the Scottish eradication scheme. The authors demonstrate that retesting occurred quicker if the initial not negative test was from blood rather than milk samples. Such differences in the response of farmers/veterinarians to tests may be of interest to the design of future schemes.