Vaccination programs can be complicated, which is why veterinarians urge producers to consult with them to design a vaccine protocol tailored to their specific needs.
“Every producer has different risk levels depending on their contact with other animals, depending on their management system, when they would calve and what area they live in geographically across Canada,” said Cody Creelman of Veterinary Agri-Health Services in Aidrie, Alta.
“There’s a big difference between southern Saskatchewan and northern Alberta, so there definitely isn’t a cookie cutter vaccination protocol.”
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He said cow herds need to be protected from respiratory and the abortion-causing viral pathogens: infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, bovine viral diarrhoea, bovine respiratory syncytial virus and parainfluenza 3.
“These are the core viral vaccines that most cows get vaccinated with on an annual basis,” he said.
There are two types of vaccines. One is a kill vaccine where the virus is actually killed and another is a modified live vaccine that can replicate in the body, but is modified in such a way that it doesn’t cause clinical disease.
There are two optimal timeframes for vaccinating. Mature cows can be vaccinated before breeding, or three to four weeks before turning bulls out. Vaccination can also be completed during fall processing while performing pregnancy tests.
The majority of time mature cows would also receive a clostridial vaccination, which producers commonly refer to as their black leg shot.
“Depending on the product, it actually protects against seven or eight different clostridial organisms,” Creelman said.
“The clostridials are always killed vaccines and they can be given basically any time of the year, whenever it fits into the producers ability to vaccinate,” he said.
“Some producers will vaccinate annually, some every other year and some every three years depending on what their veterinarian’s recommendations are and their risk level.
“The general statement is that the breeding season is coming and that vaccinations during the prebreeding time is a common procedure across the cattle industry.”
Most veterinarians recommend vaccinating against bovine viral diarrhea (BVD).
It can be transmitted through a congenital infection of the fetus or after birth. Congenital infections may cause resorption, abortion, stillbirth, or calves born with the infection.
The infection in live-birth calves will persist for the life of the calf and they will shed the virus continuously in their environment.
“If it’s infected as a fetus right when the immune system is developing, it actually becomes this (persistently infected) animal. It’s infected with BVD virus but its immune system never fights it. And they become little walking, talking virus factories that can spread BVD everywhere,” said John Campbell from the Western College of Veterinary Medicine at the University of Saskatchewan.
“That’s what we’re trying to prevent so one of the ways to vaccinate for BVD is to vaccinate the cow just before breeding prior to turnout because then you get very high (antibody) titers through early gestation, which is the risk period for the fetus and you get better fetal protection there.”
A vaccination program to prevent calf scours or diarrhea is also be-coming standard practice. It is administered during precalving to pregnant cows.
