Calfhood vaccinations aid in providing immunity from disease for newborns

Newborn calves gain temporary, or passive, immunity from disease when they ingest colostrum from the dam, since this “first milk” contains maternal antibodies.  

After a few weeks or months, this temporary protection begins to wane, however, and calves must build their own immunities.  

Vaccinating calves at the proper time can help protect them until weaning age.  

Vaccinating them too soon, however, may not stimulate much immune response. If the calf still has maternal antibodies in his system, these tend to interfere with building his own immunities.  The body sees no need to respond.

Things to think about

Chris Chase of the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences at South Dakota State University says there are several considerations that producers need to keep in mind.  

“When maternal antibody protection begins to wane, we can probably get a good response to vaccinations by about three months of age.  It all depends on how much protection the calf received at birth – meaning how much colostrum, how soon for maximum absorption of antibodies and how good it was,” he comments.

“In most herds, we won’t find 100 percent of the calves fully protected. It’s more like 70 to 80 percent,” Chase continues. “When developing calf vaccination programs, we need to know what disease problems are going on in the herd.”

BRSV

If it’s a herd that has had issues with bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), for instance, this will necessitate a different plan than if the herd has not had problems.  

“BRSV is notorious for having maternal interference at low levels that can last for a long time,” says Chase.  

If the calf received some antibodies against BRSV from colostrum, the calf may not gain much immunity from an injected vaccine unless it is adjuvanted, until those maternal antibodies are gone from his system.

“Producers need to have a specific plan for their own situation. There are many protocols, and they might decide to give your calves vaccinations for IBR and BVD, but in reality, those two diseases are generally not an issue in young calves,” he says.  

Producers need to be more concerned with these diseases as the calves approach weaning age.

Other diseases

“Some herds, however, have trouble with summer pneumonia in young calves, and BRSV is a problem.  In these cases, producers can use the intranasal vaccine,” says Chase.

“The intranasal vaccine does have the ability to get around the maternal antibodies. The other thing a producer can do is use an adjuvanted vaccine,” he explained. “In most cases people think that only an inactivated vaccine is adjuvanted, but we do have some adjuvanted modified-live vaccines.” 

“If we know we have a summer pneumonia problem, BRSV is usually the culprit.  There’s no vaccine just for BRSV, however,” Chase continues. “Producers have to use the combination product containing BRSV-IBR-BVD-PI3, even though at this age in calves the BRSV is the only thing producers are really worried about.”

Diagnosis

Proper diagnosis is crucial.  

“Producers need to have some indication about what they are dealing with.  There are some tests now, using deep pharyngeal swabs and some other ways to get material from deep in the back of the throat, to get a more accurate diagnosis,” he says. 

A diagnosis is always important, to know what diseases should be included in a vaccination program, he emphasizes.

“At this point in time the intranasal vaccine will give the most likelihood of success and the least likelihood of failure, in that age group. From two weeks up to three months, this makes the most sense, particularly if ranchers are worried about BRSV,” he says. “The adjuvanted modified-live vaccine, where the producer gives a single dose, also has some usefulness, but I haven’t seen enough data yet in young calves with agents other than BVDV.”

Other vaccines

For calves, depending on what the producer must deal with, there are also the seven-way clostridial vaccines that can be given at this age.  

“The interesting thing with these is that the literature tells us that if there are maternal antibodies present these might not work, but field experience time and time again shows that those vaccines definitely have some efficacy.  This is especially true if we are looking at C. perfringens in young calves or blackleg,” he says.  

“We can give these vaccines and not have to worry so much about problems with maternal antibody interference,” Chase comments. 

“Part of the reason is that with Clostridia we are actually vaccinating against an exotoxin. This is a simpler antigen, and easier for the immune system to see and attack, compared with some of the viruses,” explains Chase.  

If a producer is having problems with enterotoxemia, for instance, the calves can be vaccinated at a very young age, even if the cows were vaccinated during pregnancy, to stimulate high levels of maternal antibodies in the colostrum.

Timing

As a rule of thumb, most western ranchers give calfhood vaccinations at branding time.  

“When vaccinating calves at this age, the goal is often just to prepare them for whatever they will encounter at weaning time,” says Chase.  

It’s like a set-up vaccination that will then be boostered at weaning.  If producers want to give a vaccination just prior to or at weaning, it’s good to have this initial shot at an earlier age.

Maternal antibodies tend to interfere longer with some of the viral diseases, compared with some of the bacterial infections that create toxins.  

“The viruses are big proteins and have to be broken down and processed by the immune system in order to be fully recognized and attacked,” he says.

Heather Smith Thomas is a correspondent for the Wyoming Livestock Roundup. Send comments on this article to roundup@wylr.net.