10 January2023, US: Newborn beef calves are now sprinkled across the countryside. Early calf care and the right vaccination protocols can mitigate the risk and severity of sickness, setting calves up for success. Vaccines will help reduce the number of calves you’ll need to treat, minimize death loss and improve overall herd profitability.
Even though calves don’t have a fully functioning immune system at birth, they’re still able to respond to some vaccines.
The cattle industry is doing a lot of work to understand when calves will respond to which vaccines, but overall there is a good understanding that calves will respond to certain vaccines right away — including vaccines for respiratory disease and scours.
Watch Dr. Erika Nagorske, a practicing veterinarian with Southwest Veterinary Services, FBN®’s official veterinary partner, in the video below as she discusses why it’s important to think about a vaccination program and what the disease costs are for both the industry and individual operations.
The Cost of Respiratory Disease in Cattle
The beef industry loses about $1 billion annually due to cattle affected by respiratory challenges. That accounts for 1 in 5 cows.¹
Respiratory disease is the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in feedlots according to NAHMS.² These statistics show us that respiratory disease is a significant challenge. The industry would benefit as whole by minimizing the disease pressure in every way we can.
How Does Respiratory Disease Affect a Farm or Ranch P&L?
Respiratory disease impacts profitability in more than just actual treatment costs. Labor and facilities required to treat sick animals also have a cost.
Calves affected by respiratory disease will see their growth affected and will be behind the rest of the herd by 15-30 days. Finally, death loss has its obvious effects on profitability.
Intranasal Respiratory Disease Vaccines
The two main options for safe vaccines to give at birth are:
Bovilis® Nasalgen® 3 (IBR, BRSV, PI-3) by Merck Animal Health
Inforce™ 3 (IBR, BRSV, PI-3) by Zoetis
Calf Scours
The second condition we can address through vaccines at birth is calf scours. If a calf has a scour event, there is significant risk for them to develop respiratory disease.
It’s also important to remember that calves amplify the pathogen load when they’re sick, so it’s much easier for them to spread disease to other calves.
Scour Vaccines for Calves
The two main options for newborn calf scour vaccines are:
Bovilis® Coronavirus by Merck Animal Health
Calf-Guard® (Rotavirus and Coronavirus) by Zoetis – this should be administered 30 minutes before colostrum.
What Experts Recommend
Work with your veterinarian to determine which protocol is best for your specific operation. This can change from year-to-year and will depend on if you’re purchasing different cows or the disease pressure changes on your farm.
Find Animal Health Products on FBN Direct®
FBN puts Farmers First® by providing animal health expertise, a broad product portfolio to choose from representing all the main manufacturers and the convenience of online shopping with products delivered right to your doorstep.
Get the vaccines, pharmaceuticals and other key animal health products delivered directly to you from FBN Direct. Plus, the FBN Pharmacy has prescription and over-the-counter pharmaceuticals available in many U.S. states also ready for rapid, farm-direct delivery.
