Field trial to evaluate the effect of an intranasal respiratory vaccine protocol on bovine respiratory disease incidence and growth in a commercial calf rearing unit

Abstract

Background: 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. 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.Results: Average 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.Conclusions: Vaccinating 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.

Identifying and addressing barriers and opportunities for bovine respiratory disease complex vaccination: a consensus paper on practical recommendations for best practise vaccination

“…In one calf unit, 497 calves (mean age 19 days) were included in a study, 247 of which were vaccinated at the time of arrival to the unit and 250 served as negative controls (non-vaccinated). Intranasal vaccination combined with older arrival age (17 days or older) resulted in a higher daily gain (47.8 g/day) compared with non-vaccinated calves (p = 0.003) (16). It is worth highlighting that some of these productivity benefits of vaccination may be due to the impact on subclinical disease, as described earlier (7,9).…”

“…A further study demonstrated preferential weight gain, compared with unvaccinated calves, for those intranasally vaccinated at a slightly older age than those at a younger age. The authors suggested that younger calves may have been less able to respond to the vaccination due to having an immature adaptive immune system, or inhibitory effects of maternal antibody (16).…”

Welfare of calves

“…Colostrum antibodies may protect calves for long periods (up to 6 months) against some virus (BVDV and IBR); however, they will have a short half‐life for other pathogens such as BRD bacteria, BRSV and PI3 (Fulton et al., 2004 ; Prado et al., 2006 ; Chamorro et al., 2014 ). This can be mitigated by the use of intra‐nasal vaccination against BRSV and PI3 in very young calves (Masset et al., 2020 ; Sandelin et al., 2020 ). Appropriate feeding of calves is another key aspect.…”