NADIS disease bulletins are written specifically for farmers, to increase awareness of prevalent conditions and promote disease prevention and control, in order to benefit animal health and welfare.

Farmers are advised to discuss their individual farm circumstances with their veterinary surgeon

Warts (Bovine papillomatosis)

Warts are a very common finding on many cattle particularly youngstock. In most cases they are a minor nuisance, but on occasion warts can be a significant problem

What are warts?

Warts are the reaction of skin to infection with papova viruses. Six different papova viruses have been identified that cause disease in cattle but most cases are caused by one of two types

Clinical Signs

¨ Warts can occur anywhere on the body but are most commonly seen in the head and neck area.

¨ Less common but often more important sites include teats and scrotum

¨ Warts vary greatly in shape from almost flat pea-sized lumps to large orange-sized balls on stalks

¨ Cattle are usually otherwise healthy; there are normally no systemic effects.

Diagnosis

· In most cases the diagnosis is obvious

· If the presentation is unusual then your vet can take samples for laboratory testing which will confirm the involvement of papova virus

Treatment

· In most cases treatment is unnecessary as the warts will resolve with time

· There is no completely effective treatment, particularly for severe cases.

· Many antibiotics are effective, particularly penicillins. Ask your vet for advice.

· Keeping the skin dry (i.e. bringing the cattle indoors) is often more effective than any treatment. If the warts grow excessively or a regularly damaged the get your vet to remove them. This can usually be done by simple surgery or if the wart has a significant stalk using a rubber ring

· Wart vaccines made up from wart material (known as autogenous vaccines) have been used but there is no evidence they actually speed up the disappearance of warts in animals that have them

· The rule with warts is to ignore them as long as you think they’re unlikely to cause you a problem but if you think they might be a problem get rid of them before they cause one

Prevention

The disease is very infectious so it is extremely difficult to prevent the spread of infection from one animal to another and it is probably uneconomic too try.

Vaccination may be effective but commercial vaccination has not proven economic for the vaccine manufacturer and autogenous vaccines have not proven to be effective.

Richard Laven PhD BVetMed MRCVS