POPULATION-DYNAMICS OF BOVINE HERPESVIRUS-1 INFECTION IN A DAIRY-HERD

An induced outbreak of a bovine herpesvirus 1 (BHV1) infection in a da iry herd is described, The outbreak was induced by injecting three BHV 1 seropositive cows with dexamethasone. Within 7 weeks all seronegativ e cows had seroconverted. Also some seropositive animals showed a sign ificant increase in serum antibody titre. Using these data, parameters of population dynamics such as R(0), the basic reproduction ratio, co uld be estimated, The basic reproduction ratio is a threshold value de scribing infection dynamics in a population. This parameter is defined as the average number of secondary cases generated by one primary cas e in a wholly susceptible population of defined density. In this popul ation R(0) was estimated to be at least 7. The importance of these fin dings, and implications for eradication of BHV1 are discussed.