Pneumonia vaccine

[Jdunn55]

I've been thinking for a while I really should do some sort of pneumonia vaccine. I don't tend to have problems with my calves when they're in hutches (maybe 5% tops would display pneumonia symptoms) however once grouped at 8+ weeks I do get coughing and issues

Admittedly my youngstock housing is less than ideal but on a rented farm with a short tenancy I have to work with what I've got. Unless someone wants to donate £20k+ for a youngstock shed, happy to pm my bank details

After a bit of googling ahdb had a list of all the vaccines available they all seemed to cover different strains, cost different prices and cover various time periods, so I've made a bit of an excel table to see what does what strain and how much it would cost me to get a heifer to 12+ months old (eg after 2nd housing)

Not sure what everyone else thinks, but I'm thinking the bovalto respi 3 looks a good buy? £21 would get you to 13-14 months of age and covers 3 strains of pneumonia which I'm guessing are the 3 most common strains judging by the amount of vaccines that cover those strains?

Should I do some testing first to see what I need perhaps? What calves do you sample and at what age? Obviously can speak to my vet but sometimes find fellow farmers have a slightly more practical advice.

 

[Princess Pooper]

Just one comment (we don't normally get pneumonia at this age so I can't suggest vaccine, we get it in the babies 10 days+, they are usually grouped by then and use Bovalto intranasal which covers them for 12 weeks).

Post-weaning, we don't normally get pneumonia issues, but as they get bigger, one thing makes a massive difference and that is stocking density. Once they are a few months old then if we have too many calves in our own less than ideal sheds, we get problems. We have learned this over the years and are now usually able to move them around pro-actively to reduce the density and don't get the problem. The exact density will depend on the layout and ventilation in your sheds.

 

[Werzle]

In my experience i think using the earliest intranasal and then inject with respi 3 later works best. Thats what i use on rearing calves and the suckler bred calves just get the respi 3 x2 in the autumn 6 weeks + before weaning.

 

[white_stuffed]

When we had an outbreak at around New year the vet took swab tests because there was some funding available to get them tested for free to identify strains. In the end the timing around Bank hols meant they were never tested as labs were closed. We did a firebreak dose of Bovilis intranasal rsp because vet said it covered the 2 main strains which predominate in weaned calf age. It worked brilliantly but we wonder if the worst of the outbreak was over anyway, so not conclusive. We would swab test if another outbreak happened. (Love your spreadsheet, I'll pinch that one for future reference).

 

[TheRanger]

Probably frowned upon but Draxxin and Metacam to anything starting to show symptoms will be more cost effective if you don't get many cases. Works incredibly well on pneumonia here as long as you catch it early. As with yourself we get 0 cases in the calves as they’re in hutches. Get the odd case once they’re housed in groups at 3-4 months old.

If you get lots of cases vaccination may be the better route.

 

[Optimus]

It's a bit of a mine field really.ive had problems with my backend calvers this year.they had bovalto intranasal, ibr and myco b vaccines.and got nailed with RSV in the middle of the cover period.

Yet the spring Calvers got the same intranasal an ibr vaccine an had no issues.

 

[cattow]

One of the pneumonia vaccines used to give a false positive to IBR so be careful treating potential AI bulls

 

[Gulli]

Test them, if you're getting positives to the same strain repeatedly then vaccinate against that, any other way and you are just pissing money up the wall

 

[Farmer Keith]

Test them, if you're getting positives to the same strain repeatedly then vaccinate against that, any other way and you are just pissing money up the wall

Dead easy to do, the time with the vet is a good chance to chat through any other issues to, they may offer you a good second opinion on improvements to housing for example that don’t cost £20k. We’re just in old calve housing here, nothing purpose built but very functional. Unlikely to change anytime soon in a block calving scenario.

 

[Tasteless]

Do some tests first. We used respi 3 for a whole year and actually found we had more issues, nor did it end up covering the strains we were getting.

 

[som farmer]

we have used bovalto, for the last 2 years, through the vet tec, calls in once a week.

always difficult to say, works or not, as no comparison. This year however, the very early calves missed out, and it would be fair to say, we had more coughing etc, and injected a few more, in that bunch, than the rest, conclusion, it works.

as @Princess Pooper says, stocking density in pens, is important, but it's ventilation that is crucial, stale air, carrying all the bugs, has to be shifted asap, or problems escalate.

but nutrition, colostrum, management, all play a part, the stronger the calf is, the better it can fight disease challenges.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

We have been recommended to use the Bovalto intranasal by the vet. Does anyone else use it on here if so how do you get on with it?

 

[som farmer]

We have been recommended to use the Bovalto intranasal by the vet. Does anyone else use it on here if so how do you get on with it?

we do, vet tech comes out weekly, does a round of farms, so always done on time, no part bottles.

we think it makes a big difference, pneumonia isn't a problem, injected a few this summer, but l think more weather related variables.

 

[Princess Pooper]

We have been recommended to use the Bovalto intranasal by the vet. Does anyone else use it on here if so how do you get on with it?

yes, used it for years, very pleased with it (see above)

 

[DaveGrohl]

Been out of the dairy job for 10 years but 1 shot only of Rispoval 4 worked wonders for us. Hardly ever had a beast with pneumonia and if we had one then 1 shot of Nuflor sorted it straight away.

We have other people’s young stock on our farm these days and they seem to have no end of bother.

 

[som farmer]

the 2 'must do. vaccinations here are Rotovac, and bolvolto

tried, tested and routine.

 

[Holsteinfriesian90]

I’ve picked some up yesterday any tips on administering it?

 

[Jimfandango]

I have done 3 years of vaccinating. I can't see it has made any noticable difference to my calf pneumonia numbers. They are market bought though, so whatever strain you get is a lottery. I don't think I will bother this year. I will spend the saving on going back to heptavac P for my sheep.

 

[Princess Pooper]

I’ve picked some up yesterday any tips on administering it?

Be prepared for them wriggling, after all, we learnt in Covid it's not nice sticking things up the nose! I pen mine into small groups and straddle them; putting a finger in their mouth to suck helps as a way to hold the head. You are drawing off 2 ml and hoping to put 1 ml up each nostril so it's a bit hit and miss to start with, but that's just to increase the surface area over which the droplets can be absorbed.

Depending what sort of applicator you have, I do blow through them before I use them - occasionally they have no hole in them so when you press the plunger in all you do is shoot the applicator off and waste the vaccine.