Reducing the Risk of BRD in Calves

Bovine Respiratory Disease Complex or BRD also known as shipping fever and pneumonia is a series of complex viruses that weaken the immune system of affected cattle. It's usually considered the biggest threat to cattle in feedlots, however it can be a problem in pre-weaned cattle as well.

Dr. Andy Allen from the Department of Veterinary Clinical Medicine Washington State University shares more BRD prevention tips that begin even before calves are born.

Allen: "Feed the cows, the pregnant cow, very well so that when that calf is born it is set up and ready to go with a good immune system. Another part is decreasing the amount of stress that calf has in its life. That starts with having calving ease bulls so there is no calving problems. Then it moves to the stress of weaning and preconditioning animals so that they are vaccinated previous to being weaned. Having a low stress type weaning operation. Then it moves into decreasing the stresses that occur during transportation. Once you've weaned those animals and prepare to send them to either a backgrounder or feedlot -- there are ways that you can decrease those stress so the animals do much better."

Tomorrow we will continue our conversation with Dr. Allen to learn about new online tools and seminars to help ranchers reduce the risk of BRD in their herd.