New Intranasal Vaccine Provides Earlier BRD Protection

It is common knowledge that Bovine Respiratory Disease or BRD has long-term health consequences that cost the U.S. beef and dairy industries nearly $1 billion annually and it is also the single biggest killer of newly weaned calves.

 

Merck Animal Health Dairy Director for Technical Services Scott Nordstrom shares some of the animal husbandry practices both dairy and beef cattle producers can use to try and prevent BRD in calves.

 

Nordstrom: “That’s make sure that calves have good ventilation. That they have a clean, dry bedding situation so the ammonia levels are low because those are things that can set calves up for BRD.”

 

Merck has a new intranasal vaccine now available for calves as young as one week of age against bacterial forms as Nordstrom explains.

Nordstrom: “What we are really excited about is the launch of a new product called Once PMH IN. What this vaccine does is allows them to vaccinate calves at a very young age for a very common cause of bacterial pneumonia. Most of the diseases we deal with in respiratory track are going to come in through the nose. So by giving the vaccine up the nose, it allows us to create immunity at the site of bacteria or disease initiation.”