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Don't make a guess with your receiving programThe right protocols lead to healthier cattle with better performance By Mitch Blanding DVM, Pfizer Animal Health Whether starting lightweight calves or growing and finishing cattle, a sound receiving program that includes prevention, control and treatment measures for respiratory issues and deworming strategies helps offset the guessing game producers are typically faced with. Unless you're buying known origin cattle or animals verified with a verified preconditioning program, you don't know what you're getting. In any given group of animals, we don't know if they've been vaccinated and for what; we don't know what their parasite load is; we don't know if the sick animals have been ill for one or five days; we may not even be sure if they've come from a drought-stricken area that adds to the 'normal' level of stress. Prevention is the most economical medicine The most economical place to start to intervene with respiratory disease is with prevention. We first try to intervene with those animals that have a competent immune system and are capable of responding to a vaccine. However, many animals' immune systems are already compromised due to, not only their young age, but also risk factors such as nutritional and trace mineral deficiency, parasites or other stressful events associated with the marketing process like weaning, heavy co-mingling and shipping. Parasites are proven to cause depressed immune systems in cattle, decreasing their ability to respond to these vaccination programs and making them more susceptible to long-term disease challenges, which is why strategic deworming is also important. Control and treatment measures add up For a certain population of animals, it will be too late to intervene with prevention. Risk factors may be stacked against them; they may be incubating bovine respiratory disease and are either sick on arrival or will soon become sick. For these animals, it's important to administer a control antibiotic to catch bacterial disease early. Using extended therapy products is a groundbreaking concept for on-arrival control programs. These products can last up to 7 days and work with the animal's own immune system to respond and help fight the infection. In fact, studies show that using an extended therapy antibiotic that maintains therapeutic blood concentrations for up to 7 days, compared to the traditional 3 days, results in healthier calves that start eating at the bunk faster, resulting in more weight gain and better carcass value. Using these products on arrival also reduces the total number of pulls. Ideally, you've impacted all the animals in a group with either prevention or control and no animals need additional treatment. However, you know that's not realistic. At the point when treatment is necessary, it is critical to choose a proven, effective antibiotic to prevent chronics, reduce the loss of cattle and avoid significant risks to performance. Additional benefits to BRD control Operational efficiency is another benefit of controlling BRD. You may not be able to maximize opportunities because of limitations in cattle health. If you are spending more time tending to sick animals, then you have less time to start new groups. Dealing with sick cattle can be a bottleneck in operations. That's in addition to treatment costs, labor associated with treatments and closeout value. It all adds up to maximizing profitability with a BRD protocol of prevention, control and treatment, and working with your veterinarian to select the best products and technologies available. Editor's note: Cattle Call is brought to you by cattle health professionals to keep you informed about current issues important to cattle producers. Mitch Blanding is a veterinarian with Pfizer Animal Health. 2/11/08 Date: 2/1/08
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