Abstract
BackgroundBovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be great challenge in calf rearing units. The urgent need to decrease the use of antibiotics and increase animal welfare in beef production has forced us to introduce new preventive methods. Vaccinations could contribute to the solution, but the high incidence of BRD already at an early age has made it difficult to introduce suitable vaccination programs. Challenge studies have shown promising results in 3–14 day old calves vaccinated with intranasal BRD vaccine, but very few field trials are available to assess the efficacy of the intranasal vaccines in field conditions. We evaluated the effect of one dose of commercial intranasal vaccination on calf mortality, daily gain, and treatment incidence for BRD in one calf rearing unit. In total, 497 calves (mean age 19 days) were included in our study, 247 of which were vaccinated at the time of arrival to the unit and 250 served as negative controls (unvaccinated). Vaccinated and unvaccinated calves were situated in separate compartments until weaning. Daily gain, treatment incidence, and mortality were recorded until the calves were transported to the finishing unit, which averaged 154.5 days from arrival.ResultsAverage daily gain over the complete study period was 1151.9 g/day (SD 137.9) for the vaccinated calves and 1139.5 g/day (SD 135.9) for the unvaccinated calves. Intranasal vaccination combined with older arrival age (17 days or older) resulted in a higher daily gain (47.8 g/day) compared with unvaccinated calves (coef. 0.0478, p = 0.003). This association was not recorded in calves that were younger than 17 days upon arrival. Intranasal vaccination was not significantly associated either with mortality (OR 0.976, p = 0.968) or treatment incidence for BRD (OR 1.341, p = 0.120). In total, six vaccinated calves (2.43%) and six unvaccinated calves (2.40%) died during the study period.ConclusionsVaccinating arriving calves with intranasal vaccine in the calf rearing unit did not decrease the mortality or treatment incidence for BRD, but it significantly improved the weight gain in calves transported to the unit at the age of 17 days or older.
Highlights
Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be great challenge in calf rearing units
High morbidity rates lead to increased use of antibiotics, which is commonly associated with the emergence of antimicrobial resistance [8]
The serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentration at the time of arrival was below the reference value (10 mg/ml) in 51.8% (n = 128) of the vaccinated calves and 57.6% (n = 144) of the control calves (54.7% (n = 272) of all calves)
Summary
Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be great challenge in calf rearing units. The urgent need to decrease the use of antibiotics and increase animal welfare in beef production has forced us to introduce new preventive methods. We evaluated the effect of one dose of commercial intranasal vaccination on calf mortality, daily gain, and treatment incidence for BRD in one calf rearing unit. 497 calves (mean age 19 days) were included in our study, 247 of which were vaccinated at the time of arrival to the unit and 250 served as negative controls (unvaccinated). Treatment incidence, and mortality were recorded until the calves were transported to the finishing unit, which averaged 154.5 days from arrival. Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is the major cause of increased morbidity and mortality in young calves [1,2,3]. Public concern of animal welfare and emergence of antibiotic resistance puts pressure on the industry to find new preventive methods for improving animal health, and reduce the use of antibiotics in the beef production chain [11]
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