January 2026
Best Practices for Sampling for Bovine Respiratory Disease
When surveying a group of cattle during a respiratory outbreak, deep pharyngeal swabs are valuable.
Sample: one DPS from 10 affected animal.
During a herd outbreak, sampling this number of animals provides a 98%+ opportunity to discover a virus if it associated with the disease.
Testing economics:
Place 5 swabs in two sterile red top tubes with 0.25 ml saline
This allows you to sample an appropriate number of animals without spending a lot of money.