Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia or bleeding calf syndrome

Bovine Neonatal Pancytopenia is an emerging disease of young calves that has been seen across Europe since 2007. Calves present at <1 month old with pyrexia and either signs of external haemorrhage or collapse/sudden death due to internal haemorrhage. The fatality rate is >90%. Haematology from cases reveals a profound thrombocytopenia. Histopathology of bone marrow shows a dramatic depletion of all haemopoetic cell lines, consistent with a definition of trilineage hypoplasia. The aetiology of BNP remains unknown and work is continuing in the UK and Europe to investigate all aspects of this disease.