
New Vaccine Could Cut Shipping Fever in
CattleBy Linda
McGraw July 20, 1999A new oral vaccine developed by
Agricultural Research Service scientists
may help U.S. cattle producers cut their losses from a disease that costs more
than $1 billion annually. The cost of bovine respiratory disease (BRD),
commonly known as shipping fever, is more than all other cattle diseases
combined. The new oral vaccine may be commercially available in about three years,
according to ARS veterinarian Robert E. Briggs at the
National Animal Disease Center in
Ames, Iowa. Briggs and co-developer, ARS microbiologist Fred M. Tatum,
conducted a field trial by feeding the newly-developed oral vaccine to calves
considered to be high and low risk for developing shipping fever. High-risk
calves were shipped from Arkansas to a New
Mexico State University feedlot; low risk animals were shipped a shorter
distance from a New Mexico ranch to the feedlot. Deaths among the high-risk calves fed the new vaccine were reduced from 16
to four percent. Pasteurella haemolytica--the main culprit behind
shipping fever--killed 16 percent of the nonvaccinates but none of the
vaccinated animals. In the group of low- risk calves fed the oral vaccine, the
average weight gain increased 25 percent during the first 28 days on feed. The
oral dose also protected the animals within four days instead of the usual 10
to 14 days required by current injectable vaccines. The cost of bovine respiratory disease extends beyond animal deaths. Other
losses are sustained in the form of reduced weight gains, lower feed
efficiency, antibiotics, trimming costs at the packer, and poor quality meat
and hide products. Injectable vaccines often produce lesions in animals at the
site of the injection. These lesions could be avoided by use of oral or
intranasal vaccination. The research was funded, in part, by the Biotechnology Research and
Development Consortium (BRDC) in Peoria, Illinois. The BRDC has applied for a
patent on the oral vaccine. Scientific contact: Robert E. Briggs and Fred M. Tatum, ARS National
Animal Disease Center, Ames, Iowa 50010, phone (515) 663-7639, fax (515)
663-7458, [email protected] and
[email protected]. U.S. Department of Agriculture | |