Vaccination is a proven management tool to reduce infectious disease risks in a beef herd — if the vaccine is effective in preventing and controlling the disease and the right vaccine is administered to the right cattle, at the right time, in the right way and at the right dose and frequency.
Vaccination alone will not prevent all infectious diseases because disease occurrence depends on the interrelationship of the animal’s immune system, the infectious pathogens present and environmental conditions or stressors. This is commonly known in medicine, both human and veterinary, as the epidemiological triangle.
Vaccination will prepare the animal’s immune system to fight subsequent infection by a virus or bacteria if the animal’s immune system isn’t compromised when you are vaccinating it. Stress caused by environmental factors, nutritional problems or an existing disease can all compromise an animal’s immune system.
Read Also
Drake Meats building a federally inspected facility near Saskatoon
The company is expanding its national reach, but keeping its roots in rural Saskatchewan
Vaccination immunity can also be overwhelmed by exposure to several bacteria/viruses, such as when newborn calves are born in a dirty, overstocked pen and the dam’s udder is full of manure. The calf’s first mouthful of colostrum may be contaminated with a high level of E. coli bacteria, which then cause scours. Our goal is to create a vaccination protocol where we administer an effective and safe vaccine, as per manufacturer’s label directions, to healthy, unstressed cattle, at least a couple of weeks before potential exposure to the pathogenic bacteria and/or viruses.
How many doses are needed to induce a protective immune response will depend on the type of vaccine we are using (i.e. modified-live or killed) and whether the animal has been previously vaccinated against the same pathogen. This will also determine revaccination frequency needed to keep the animal’s immune system primed to fight off infectious pathogens and prevent clinical disease.
Vaccination protocols and records
We encourage producers to work with their veterinarian to develop vaccination protocols tailored to their herd’s potential disease risks, the consequences of disease, effectiveness of the vaccine, safety of the vaccine, cost benefit of using the vaccine and any potential import/export regulations that might affect its use. Disease risks change over time, as do management practices in a herd, including the number and type of cattle in a herd, as well as the types of vaccines on the market and their known effectiveness and safety. It is wise to review your vaccination protocol each year with your veterinarian, before you need to purchase new vaccines, so that your production goals can be realistically met. It is important to keep vaccination records, as well as treatment and mortality records, because this health information will be beneficial to both you and your veterinarian so that you can review disease risks and make informed decisions on the vaccination protocol for the upcoming year.
To improve the success of your vaccination protocol, you must handle your vaccines properly because vaccines are perishable. How we transport, store, mix and administer them can affect the vaccines’ effectiveness. Vaccines are not cheap and when we use them, we expect them to work.
Handling vaccines
When transporting vaccines, whether modified-live or killed, it is important to transport and store them between 2 C to 8 C, as they are perishable. When picking up vaccines from the vet clinic, ask them to put the vaccines in a cooler box with ice packs. Place the cooler box in your truck cab, not in the truck box, as either the sun, heat or cold can reduce the vaccine’s usefulness. As soon as you get home, store the vaccine in a fridge, but not in the fridge door, as that is not cool enough. Place a reliable thermometer in the fridge and monitor the temperature to ensure it doesn’t get above 10 C. If it does, contact your vet to see whether you should use the vaccine or not.
Never freeze or overheat vaccines, as they will be ineffective. Never thaw frozen vaccines and use them. When using a vaccine, store it in a cooler box with frozen ice packs, but don’t put vaccine bottles directly on ice packs as this will damage the vaccine. Always keep vaccines out of direct sunlight.
All vaccines require mixing, whether they come in a single bottle or two bottles, one with a dry vaccine powder cake and the other with diluent. Follow the manufacturer’s directions for mixing vaccines. For premixed vaccines such as the Clostridia bacterins, you should mix the bottle contents before you start using the vaccine and during use. The flocculant material within the vaccine settles by gravity and each animal must get a well-mixed dose of the vaccine.
For vaccines that come in two bottles, such as modified-live viral vaccines, use a clean transfer needle (double-edged) to reconstitute the vaccine. Put one end of the needle into the liquid bottle first and then put the other end of the needle into the bottle with the vaccine powder cake, so that the negative pressure in the bottle with the vaccine powder cake draws in the liquid. Then gently swirl the liquid and vaccine powder cake together to mix until the vaccine powder cake completely dissolves. Don’t vigorously shake the bottle, as this can damage the vaccine proteins. Further details can be found in this video on the Beef Research YouTube channel.
Administering vaccines
It’s important to follow the vaccine manufacturer’s label directions on how to administer the vaccine. This means not only the dose to use (e.g. two or four cc/ml and the injection route — intranasal, subcutaneous or intramuscular), but also the timing. Some vaccines are not safe to use in pregnant, very young or sick animals. Always read the vaccine label directions before use and follow all the manufacturer’s label directions. As mentioned earlier, vaccines work best if given to healthy cattle before a disease challenge. It takes approximately two weeks for the animal to generate a good immune response to the vaccine. If using a killed vaccine for the first time, two doses of the vaccine, typically a few weeks apart, are needed to generate a protective immune response. When administering vaccines, use clean syringes and needles and change needles at least every 10 head. This reduces the risk of injection site lesions and broken needles. The needle size needed varies depending on the size of the animal. For intranasal vaccines, an intranasal cannula is usually provided with the vaccine. For subcutaneous injections in calves under six months of age, usually an 18-gauge by half, three-quarter or five-eighths of an inch needle is recommended. In adult cattle, the same length of needle is used but with a wider 16-gauge. Never use a 14-gauge needle because it is too wide and too much vaccine will leak out of the injection site. For intramuscular injections, the same gauge is used for each age group above, but the length of the needle is increased to at least one inch.
When administering multiple vaccines, administer them a few inches apart from each other and other animal health products, so that they don’t interfere with each other. Never inject through one product to give another product. Further information can be found in this video on the Beef Research YouTube channel.
Vaccine disposal and equipment cleanup
It is important to read the manufacturer’s label directions to determine how long the vaccine is effective once reconstituted or the bottle is opened. For modified-live viral vaccines, once mixed, they are only effective for one to two hours. If you have not used all the vaccine by then, throw it away and mix a new bottle. That is why it is important to reconstitute only one bottle of modified-live viral vaccine at a time and use it up before mixing another. Try to buy vaccine bottles of different dosage sizes so that you don’t have to throw away too much vaccine, as that is costly. For vaccines for Mannheimia haemolytica (e.g. One Shot, Presponse SQ), check the manufacturer’s label directions. Most labels will tell you that the vaccine is only effective for approximately eight hours once the bottle is opened. For clostridial bacterins, the manufacturer’s labels usually indicate to discard them at the end of the day’s vaccination. Again, try to buy different-sized dosage bottles for the number of cattle that you will vaccinate within one day.
Never use vaccines past their expiry date, as their effectiveness is unknown. When bringing home new vaccine, store it behind the older vaccine in the fridge, so that you use the vaccine with the shorter expiry date. Dispose of used needles in a sharp’s container.
Most vaccine syringes are reusable. There are 50 cc repeater syringes, draw-off syringes and bottle tops.
Only use clean, hot water to clean inside the barrel of any syringe. Disinfectant or soap will leave a residue inside the barrel no matter how well you rinse it, which can damage the effectiveness of the vaccine.
By working closely with your veterinarian to develop a vaccination protocol specific to your herd and by following good vaccination handling practices, you can reduce the risk of infectious diseases in your herd and improve your cattle’s health, welfare and performance, as well as your economic bottom line.
We acknowledge the financial support of Beef Cattle Research Council (BCRC), Alberta Cattle Feeders Association, Manitoba Beef Producers, Saskatchewan Cattlemen’s Association, Western Canadian Animal Health Network, University of Calgary’s veterinary medicine department, University of Saskatchewan — Livestock and Forage Centre of Excellence, Saskatchewan Agriculture, Lakeland College, Boehringer Ingelheim, Elanco, HIPRA, Merck Animal Health and Zoetis for this BCRC cow-calf vaccination extension project. We also acknowledge the technical support of the expert working group, which includes Drs. Van Donkersgoed, Windeyer, Janzen, Wilhelm, Pickard, Newton, Nickel, Fowler, Shock, Kutryk, Wauer, Kostelansky, Erickson, Palmer, Wright, Hanson, Possberg, LaPointe, Peardon, Werle and Lang.
