Due to the multiple aetiology of abortions in cattle, general prevention of non-infectious abortion concentrates on good husbandry, feeding and management. The control of infectious abortion is based on good disease control through closed herd policy, careful screening and quarantine of bought-in or introduced (e.g. rented bulls) animals and good biosecurity. Specific control measures for individual abortion agents are presented under each disease.
Once a sporadic abortion or an outbreak of abortions has happened, it is, in most cases, difficult to prevent further abortions from occurring unless the causative agent is identified and can be eradicated. In some cases, like IBR, further abortions will occur months after the first event.
An important cornerstone of abortion control in a cattle herd is good record-keeping of abortion events, and identification, if possible, of the causes in each detected case of abortion. It is, therefore, good practice to investigate all abortions, even though only about one third of all laboratory investigations of abortions produce a conclusive result. Over a period of time, a picture of the herd’s status will emerge, and subsequent abortions may be diagnosed tentatively based on clinical signs only.
A systemic examination of abortion cases should be carried out by a veterinary surgeon who will collect information on the history of the individual cow and the herd, examine the cow and the foetus (including placenta), collect laboratory samples and interpret results in connection with the cow and herd history.