The disease's effects have been monitored for three years. There is no registered vaccine. It is thought Texas herds were infected by gray foxes or coyotes carrying the disease by leaving infected droppings or saliva in feeding or watering areas. They may also leave deposits in calving areas where they come to eat placentas left on the ground. Domestic dogs also carry and spread the virus.
Blood appears to be another cause.
There are several management strategies to keep an area free of infection. Besides cleaning up afterbirths and guarding feed supplies from wildlife, producers can prevent neospora infection by better management of round bale feeders. Most people leave them in the same place all winter. Feed is spilled, cattle eat and trample it, and pathogens move in for more animals to contract. Intervet Inc. has produced a vaccine for dairy cows to reduce abortion.