Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) is an important cause of respiratory, gastrointestinal, and reproductive disease in cattle. The objectives were to calculate prevalence of BVD (“detected” test results) among all bovine samples tested for BVD at the Utah Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory from 2009 to 2013, and to compare results by sex, age, dairy vs. beef breeds (if provided) of the cattle, and BVD test methods. For necropsied animals, most were tested by Ag capture ELISA, but fetuses were usually tested by PCR. Cattle were mainly from Utah, but also from surrounding states in the Intermountain West of the United States. This was not a planned experiment, but Chi-squared was used to test for significant differences in BVD prevalence between age, sex, breed and test methods. BVD was detected in 105/8,975 samples (1.2%), including 22/180 necropsies (12.2%). Test methods and results are given in Table 1. There were no significant differences in BVD detection by age or sex. Dairy breeds (P = 0.07), all necropsied animals, and those tested with PCR were significantly more likely to test as “detected” with BVD. The overall prevalence of >1% and the 8% prevalence in aborted fetuses demonstrates that despite the low reported prevalence of persistently infected cattle, BVD remains an important bovine disease. Table 1. Results by BVD test method, by age, sex, or breed, and by dairy versus beef breeds

Item	Tested, no.	BVD detected, no. (%)
BVD test method
Ag Capture ELISA	7,692	79 (1.0)
Serum ELISA	1,195	19 (1.6)
PCR	88	7 (8.0)*
Necropsy (all methods)1	180	22 (12.2)*
Age, sex or breed
Male	215	5 (2.3)2
Female	382	9 (2.4)2
Fetus	36	3 (8.3)2,3
Calf	579
Immature	183	4 (2.2)2 4
Adult	75	4 (5.3)2 5
Dairy6	754	25 (3.3)†
Beef7	1,600	26 (1.6)†

¹Subset of above 3 categories. ²NSD among sex, age, or by test method within sex, age or breed. ³All 3 by PCR at necropsy. ⁴Three by serum ELISA, 1 by Ag Capture ELISA, of 6 necropsies (16.7%). ⁵Two by serum ELISA, 2 by Ag Capture ELISA, of 24 necropsies (8.3%). ⁶95.0% Holsteins, 3.8% Jerseys. ⁷60.0% Angus, 22.8% “Beef.” Higher prevalence of “BVD detected” results, P < 0.0001; †P = 0.07*