The vaccine is still in early trials and won’t be available for at least two years
LINDELL BEACH, B.C. —American scientists have developed a vaccine for metritis, a uterine infection that affects cows after giving birth.
The vaccine, which has been in development for six years, promises to prevent the infection from taking hold and reduce symptoms when it does.
It promises to reduce serious illness in cows, reduce major costs faced by farmer, and help deflect the problem of antibiotic resistance.
“We’re very excited about the re-sults,” said Rodrigo Bicalho, assistant professor of dairy production medicine at Cornell University’s College of Veterinary Medicine.
Read Also
Canola council cuts field agronomy team
The Canola Council of Canada is cutting its agronomy team as part of a “refreshed strategic framework.”
“It’s very promising. Our next step is to simplify the vaccine, identify which components are the most important, and try to replicate the results using more dairy farms and more cows in more trials. Then the next steps will involve moving in the direction of making a product available for producers.”
Bicalho said researchers administered the vaccine 60 days before parturition and then re-vaccinated the cows 30 days later. Metritis occurs after birth, so the vaccine is targeted at those time frames before birth for it to take effect.
“There has been a lot of response from local farmers,” said Bicalho.
“Farmers are all asking about it and want more information. They are very curious about it as metritis is an ever present problem. They know how much it affects the cows and how much it costs. It’s a really big deal for dairy farmers, for sure.”
Three of the vaccines that Bicalho’s lab developed lowered metritis incidence and lessened symptoms. The procedure showed great promise when caring for infected cows without having to give them antibiotics.
“We created multivalent vaccines, complex cocktails with several components we’ve identified as important to causing metritis,” he said.
Bicalho and his team tested five combinations of vaccines. Three of them were given subcutaneously and two were delivered intravaginally.
The three given subcutaneously were shown to be extremely effective and reduced the possibility of disease by 83 percent.
The cows had lower incidence of fever after giving birth and shorter periods of disease and were less affected when it came to reproductive performance compared to those that had not received vaccinations.
Bicalho and his colleagues were surprised by the extent of the vaccine’s effectiveness. He said it clearly offered great promise for the future, not only for herd health but also for cost savings to farmers.
Bicalho expects the vaccine to be available in two to three years.
The research study was published in the online journal PLoS ONE.
- The bacteria that causes metritis enters cows through the open vagina and cervix after calving. They then invade the uterus, causing fever, pain, inflammation, loss of appetite, depression, reduced milk production and reduced fertility to the extent that pregnancy rates are 4.5 percent lower for cows with metritis than for healthy cows.
- The illness can lead to culling of the affected cows and increased labour and treatment costs.
- Metritis treatment is behind more antibiotic use on dairy farms than any other disease.
- Metritis can affect 30 percent of a dairy herd in Canada and 25 percent of dairy cattle in the United States.
- Early detection and treatment go a long way to mitigating the ravages of the illness. The time leading up to calving is particularly crucial. In a 2013 case study, University of British Columbia researchers said critical signs of infection were seen in the two week lead-up to calving and for nearly three weeks before the first clinical signs of metritis appeared, including loss of appetite and less time spent at the feed bunk. Cows were 1.72 times more likely to be diagnosed with severe metritis for every 10 minute decrease in feeding time during the week before calving. Cows were nearly three times more likely to be diagnosed with severe metritis for every one kilogram decrease in dry matter intake during this period.
