Cattle Warts

Warts are a common skin problem in young cattle. There are several types of bovine papilloma virus that cause warts, and they're contagious in cattle herds.

• Dr. Mel Pence is a retired professor of veterinary medicine at the University of Georgia. He says the warts appear cauliflower-like or as a solid nodule on the skin. They can be miniscule in size all the way up to as large as a basketball.
• Pence says where the warts develop on the animal depends on the virus.

"The primary ones you see are on the face and the head, sometimes on the shoulder," says Pence. "And then there's another genus of the virus that affects the reproductive tract, so you can see them on the penis of a young bull, you can see them on the vulva of a heifer."

Warts generally aren't harmful and are usually found in cattle under two-years old. As the calves mature, most will develop an immunity to the virus, and the warts will eventually shrink and drop off on their own. But in the meantime, the appearance of warts can cause a negative economic impact.

"Where you really run into trouble is show calves that have warts," says Pence. "You can't send them to the county fair because they have an infectious, contagious disease, warts. The other place you run into trouble is young bulls that have them on their penis when you're doing semen evaluations. Of course you can't have an infectious, contagious disease, it has some potential for a problem with reproduction."

Pence says there are vaccines to prevent the papilloma virus, but success depends on what strain the vaccine is effective against, and the strain your herd is exposed to.

The key to wart control on a herd with a history of warts is to vaccinate young cattle and examine them often for warts. At the first sign of them, the warts should be crushed or removed. This may need to be repeated a few times until the calf develops immunity.