Healthy cattle production relies on good vaccination strategies. It all still comes down to the basic principles of herd immunity getting the masses vaccinated and depending on exposure levels and pre existing diseases will determine what the outcome is about.
Vaccination is never going to be 100 per cent but it could save the day. Generally a booster vaccine is necessary. As I have written before, vaccines save lives and that is especially true in cattle production.
Our cattle vaccines have been doing this for lots of years with generally good success. There are so many out there and if I go to print them all from the compendium, four pages of individual vaccines come up. This is why having a herd veterinarian which knows your area, herd, management style and type of cattle is key in picking the right combination for you. Even purebred versus commercial may entail a slightly different protocol or timing of vaccinations.
As an overarching statement the vaccines have to pass clinical trials for efficacy and safety not dissimilar to what happens with human vaccines. Is it safe to give are there any undesired reactions and how long protection lasts.
All vaccines run the rare risk of allergic reactions which is why that warning is on all the cattle vaccines to give epinephrine so every producer should have some in his/her emergency kit on hand in case an allergic reaction happens. As a general rule they are rare but can happen in multiples.
Improving manufacturing, duration of protection, handling/storage multiple combinations to ease of administration are all ways to increase efficacy.
Then we must all try and get fellow producers/customers to vaccinate and follow a routine vaccination program. This is why I try and advocate in bull sale and female sale catalogues as well as on line marketing of cattle the health parameters including the vaccination status is put on them. That way we can all share in the benefit of well vaccinated cattle and if any gaps are determined for your operation you can address them. The other thing is when purchasing cattle, by all means ask their vaccination status.
All vaccines are tested and the different companies vaccines protecting for the same diseases will be pretty darn comparable. If a vaccine comes out and there are too many adverse events such as allergic reactions or vaccine failures they don’t stay on the market long. This is very rare with the amount of testing that is done ahead of time. Companies spend lots of money developing these vaccines, so it is in their best interest to put out an efficacious product.
The core vaccines that are used pretty much without exception are the clostridias, the core respiratory pathogens including the viruses IBR, BVD, PI3 and BRSV as well as the bacterial respiratory pathogens histophilus, mannheimia and also pasteurella. Pasteurella is not as common in the vaccines and the pathogen histophilus causes other issues such as joint, heart and brain forms of the disease which also you get protection for. Likewise the IBR can cause abortions and BVD causes reproductive losses or persistently infected calves, so vaccinating for that vaccine gives this protection as a secondary benefit.
Most, if not all, of these diseases can be vaccinated for with as little as two shots and of course booster doses as required. Everyone’s management system is different and depending on when calving turn out to pastures and weaning occurs will help us decide what time frame to give the vaccines and which combination may be best. Killed, live or intranasal vaccines are the newest choice you have on method of administration.
There are three major pharmaceutical companies that have a complete line of vaccines and from there one chooses clostridias that are a little broader spectrum and contain tetanus or redwater which are not in all the clostridial vaccines. Also any time you give histophilus in combination with clostridias tetanus is NOT part of the combination.
The only other I would say is a core vaccine is the additional scours vaccines given to breeding cows and heifers. Again, not all herds vaccinate, but most especially if they calve in the winter months and calve in numbers greater than 100 it has become a good management choice. Three companies manufacture scours vaccines and they are all very similar in coverage it is the timing before calving that is critical.
Keep in mind calving occurs over at least a two-month period so not every cow will be in the ideal period when vaccinated. Also in order to get the protection into the calf, it is imperative colostrum is consumed in adequate amounts in the first few hours of life.
Other vaccines such as anthrax, leptospirosis, footrot, pinkeye, vibriosis, would be others that may be added if a problem in your herd or the area. It is becoming more common for a number of purebred producers to vaccinate their yearling bulls for foot rot before sold. Again they are trying to eliminate the pesky footrot in a breeding bull right at breeding time. We all know lots of other lameness conditions which there is no vaccine for. The list goes on into vaccines for mastitis in the dairy industry and currently I am sure vaccines for mycoplasma and Johne’s have been contemplated and even maybe some research put towards. Just like with COVID-19 vaccines, there are some very bright minds working in the large pharmaceutical companies, so new, improved and different methods of administration will come in the future.
The biggest change lately has been the usage of intranasal vaccines within a short time (days) after birth to prevent respiratory disease in young calves. If any of you have respiratory disease in young calves this may be a good vaccine to look into.
Your veterinarian or fellow experienced producers should always be your guiding light when it comes to vaccine selection appropriate for your geographic location and type of farming operation. Any time we get insertion of a new vaccine treatments which may include antimicrobials should go down.
Prevention is always better than treatment and vaccination is one of the best forms of biosecurity on your farm, believe me.
