Vesicular stomatitis epidemic in colorado: Clinical observations and financial losses reported by dairymen

The financial impact and clinical expression of vesicular stomatitis in Colorado dairy herds was studied during the 1982 epidemic. A non-random sample of 15 dairy herds was surveyed, 13 of which had clinical cases in lactating cows. These 13 herds represented 2404 cows among which were 378 clinical cases. The dairymen reported a distribution of lesions among the cases as follows: 262 (69.3%) oral only; 87 (23.0%) teat only; 22 (5.8%) both oral and teat and 7 (1.9%) with foot lesions. Herds experiencing primarily oral lesions had an attack rate of 19.8% with an average clinical course of 23.8 days. The attack rate in 2 of the 4 herds with teat lesions was 55.8% and 1.6% in the other 2 herds. Mastitis complicated 72% of the cases with teat lesions.The direct costs resulting from 378 cases of vesticular stomatitis reported by 13 dairymen totaled $95 752, which is an average cost of $253.31 per clinical case. The average cost per case with oral lesions is estimated to be $174.06 in contrast to $568.22 average for cases with teat lesions. The greatest loss was due to cows culled, 36.6% of the total direct costs. Decreased milk production was second with 30.3% of the total.The average decrease in milk production per clinical case was 261.3 kg (576 lbs). Deaths accounted for 11.3% of the loss and the combined costs of drugs, extra labour, veterinary service, weight loss and extra ectoparasite control accounted for 11.9% of the $95 752 total.