Bovine Respiratory Disease - known as BRD is a big problem for the beef cattle. BRD - as the disease is commonly called - is the leading cause of death in pre-wean calves 3 weeks or older. One company has come up with a new product that may help producers battle BRD in your youngest animals.
Merck Animal health has come up with a new product that will allow help producers to vaccinate calves as young as 1 week of age for BRD. Dr. Brent Meyer - beef cattle technical services manager for Merck Animal Health - says the new vaccine - called Once PMH IN - is the only intranasal vaccine to deliver dual bacterial pneumonia protection in healthy beef and dairy cattle.
"Once PMH IN aides in the control of the respiratory disease caused by Mannheimia haemolytica and the prevention of the disease caused by Pasteurella multocida," Meyer said. "The intranasal vaccination helps stimulate at strong immune response because vaccine antigens are delivered directly to the mucosal surface in the nose, a major site of immune response in cattle."
Dr. Terry Engelken is an associate professor at Iowa State University College of Veterinary Medicine and he was involved with research evaluating the new vaccine.
"Our research studies compared Once PMH IN to a commercially available Mannheimia vaccine that was given subcutaneously or under the skin," Engelken said. "The results from these trials demonstrated that at least in these young calves that are given a intranasal administration of Once PMH IN, these calves performed better in terms of a lower body temperature and better weight gain compared to calves that were given a subcutaneous Mannheimia vaccine."
Researchers also measured inflammatory protein level response. Dr. Engelken explains this can be used to gauge the level of stress that a vaccine causes the calf.