Importance of Vaccination in Cattle :
Importance of Vaccination in Cattle :
So its importance is really a relative thing it depends on what the overall risk level would be for an individual operation in a truly closed herd where there was no other animals coming in and there was complete no contact with any other animals along fence line or anything like that .
Vaccinations really has a minimal importance but when we start to increase the risk level in terms of we don't have an open herd, we're bringing in animals from different sources we're taking animals into the feed yard where we're commingling then vaccinations becomes a paramount important so it really just depends on what the individual producers risk factors are .
Out of the calf crop there's 85 percent of calves within western Canada that do receive at least one vaccine ; that vaccine is typically a Clostridium , so the black leg vaccine and if we're looking at the other vaccines where we're actually looking at a lot lower percentage around that 55 percent .
When we're thinking of things like BVD and IBR vaccination
on the cow side about 50% of cows are vaccinated with at least a Clostridium vaccine , so that black leg or that eight way and a much lower percentage would be vaccinated for anything else
so there certainly is a wide range of producers out there typically depending also on their geographical area and risk levels based off of that tube .
Timing Of Vaccination :
Timing is very important both in terms of effect and also in terms of risk level ,so we always want to be on label that gives us the assurance that we're using those vaccines appropriately based off of what the label says, the manufacturer's specifications or recommendations .
On top of that if we do have some leeway we also need to think about that timing and it's not always just what is best for that protection there's the tons of logistical constraints that goes along with that the the labor force that you have during a specific time of year whether that be in the fall or the spring
So really we need to look at which diseases specifically that we're trying to protect against and then tailoring the timing more specifically .
So I'll just use one example one would be IBR or BVD type abortions in cows while they're pregnant if you wanted the best possible protection what you would do is you would vaccinate those cows as close to breeding season as possible that's when those cows are going to be infected and have that early embryonic death or death loss in that herd .
That would mean a pre breeding vaccination schedule and based off of what the constraints would be for that individual producer you may not be able to run your cattle through and do a processing event at that time so you would have to rely on when the last time they were through the shoot was and a lot of times that is fall practice ting which is still a very good time to do your practice there to do your vaccinations but like I said it's a little delayed in terms of when that animal is going to be exposed to those pathogens and when we really want to have an effect.
What Do We Need to Consider When It Comes To Vaccination Process?
So I think the most important thing that is often forgotten is just to refresh ourselves on that label :
are we giving it to the appropriate class of animal ???
are we using the appropriate dosage ???
and are we using the appropriate site of administration whether that be intramuscular or subcutaneously ???
should have been subcutaneous... you're not going to have as
and if we just brushed up a little bit on that I think we could prevent a lot of issues.
For example going with let's say an intramuscular when it good of effect as you potentially could have or the other I think big thing is also just on the label is what the mixing instructions would say.
One big challenge that I see is people mixing up products like modified live vaccine and they're letting it sit out for several hours when really we should be using that vaccine as quick as possible our recommendation is two to three hours of refrigerated max before that vaccine starts to become inactivated because we really need to focus on making sure that those vaccines are protected while they're both in the syringe and in the bottle during that branding time during that pride test time it seems like every time we do those vaccinations
The weather is always horrible it's always really hot or really cold and we need to protect those vaccines they're very very fragile so using extra coolers and keeping them out of appropriate temperature using things like styrofoam coolers with holes cut in them that we can use as holsters just to try to maintain that temperature as best as we can because we need to ensure that that that investment that we're putting in as a vaccine is actually getting us that benefit
We're very strict within our practice of encouraging people to do proper syringe maintenance we want to make sure that those syringes are clean and well maintained so they're getting an appropriate dosage and one thing that's not known is is inside the barrel when you're cleaning a multi-dose syringe you never ever want to put any sort of detergent .
I think that's relatively well known that cleaning solution can can disrupt or denature that vaccine particle and there's not as good in effect but there's other things we need to think about too like using antibiotics in our multi dose syringe that drives me absolutely crazy if you put tetracyclines in that multi dose syringe no amount of washing is going to be able to get that antibiotic out and that's going to deactivate the vaccine the next time we put it in and lastly even just high mineral content water regular tap water when it's used to rinse out the barrel of the syringe can cause problems with the vaccine we always encourage people to do a distilled water rinse that has no mineral content to make sure that that barrel is as clean as possible it's so incredibly important .
On top of that with the appropriate I guess technique and then on top of that the appropriate equipment it really is dependent on which class of animal that you're doing and where that vaccine is going so for example in a subcutaneous injection on a smaller calf you would need to use a smaller gauge needle and with a smaller length in in contrast to a large bull getting a footrot vaccine you would need to go with a larger gauge and a longer needle so you have to tailor that for those specific animals and your veterinarian can certainly help you determine which is most appropriate for each category
How Often Producers Should Evaluate Their Vaccination Protocol ?
We encourage our producers to do it annually both for ease of our operations in terms of making sure you guys are getting exactly what you need but also making sure there's no confusion on your end .
So we encourage everybody that once a year that we sit down with them or even over the phone and go through a customized vaccination protocol that's printed out that you have for those references that you know that in the fall you're going to be giving these specific vaccines to this specific class of animal
And it's important to do that every year for two reasons the first reason is just to keep it fresh and so the veterinarian would know what's going on with that operation what new risks have come up what the disease challenges have been for the last year but on the flip side we also need to do that to fulfill some of the regulatory components within within Western Canada we need to be able to fulfill that a valid that client relationship is established that we know that disease challenges in your herd and we're doing appropriate prescriptions to make sure that we that we fall in line with all the regulatory requirements a product like a modified live vaccine is a prescription product and we need to have that ongoing conversation to make sure that prescription is valid .
What Should Producers Be Aware Of When Developping Vaccination Protocol In 2018 and Beyond ?
The majority of the regulation changes have been focusing on the injectable and in feed anti microbials things like the penicillins and the tetracyclines that traditionally we've been able to get at at feed stores and vet clinics .
Going forward those are all going to be under prescription and there's going to be a need to have that vet client relationship and that valid prescription in place to be able to access those types of things something like a modified live vaccine there's going to be absolutely no change to how that relationship has been set up they have been prescription products you've only ever been able to get them from veterinarian or pharmacy so nothing is really going to change there but the one little logistical thing is if the feed stores are not necessarily selling as many livestock products as they used to they may not carry some of the other vaccines that they traditionally have like an eight-way which is has not required a prescription and will continue to not require a prescription but just because of the logistics of whether or not they're going to be carrying animal health products those might be pulled from the feed stores in the future but not to many changes.
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Vaccinations really has a minimal importance but when we start to increase the risk level in terms of we don't have an open herd, we're bringing in animals from different sources we're taking animals into the feed yard where we're commingling then vaccinations becomes a paramount important so it really just depends on what the individual producers risk factors are .
Out of the calf crop there's 85 percent of calves within western Canada that do receive at least one vaccine ; that vaccine is typically a Clostridium , so the black leg vaccine and if we're looking at the other vaccines where we're actually looking at a lot lower percentage around that 55 percent .
When we're thinking of things like BVD and IBR vaccination
on the cow side about 50% of cows are vaccinated with at least a Clostridium vaccine , so that black leg or that eight way and a much lower percentage would be vaccinated for anything else
so there certainly is a wide range of producers out there typically depending also on their geographical area and risk levels based off of that tube .
Timing Of Vaccination :
Timing is very important both in terms of effect and also in terms of risk level ,so we always want to be on label that gives us the assurance that we're using those vaccines appropriately based off of what the label says, the manufacturer's specifications or recommendations .
On top of that if we do have some leeway we also need to think about that timing and it's not always just what is best for that protection there's the tons of logistical constraints that goes along with that the the labor force that you have during a specific time of year whether that be in the fall or the spring
So really we need to look at which diseases specifically that we're trying to protect against and then tailoring the timing more specifically .
So I'll just use one example one would be IBR or BVD type abortions in cows while they're pregnant if you wanted the best possible protection what you would do is you would vaccinate those cows as close to breeding season as possible that's when those cows are going to be infected and have that early embryonic death or death loss in that herd .
That would mean a pre breeding vaccination schedule and based off of what the constraints would be for that individual producer you may not be able to run your cattle through and do a processing event at that time so you would have to rely on when the last time they were through the shoot was and a lot of times that is fall practice ting which is still a very good time to do your practice there to do your vaccinations but like I said it's a little delayed in terms of when that animal is going to be exposed to those pathogens and when we really want to have an effect.
What Do We Need to Consider When It Comes To Vaccination Process?
So I think the most important thing that is often forgotten is just to refresh ourselves on that label :
are we giving it to the appropriate class of animal ???
are we using the appropriate dosage ???
and are we using the appropriate site of administration whether that be intramuscular or subcutaneously ???
should have been subcutaneous... you're not going to have as
and if we just brushed up a little bit on that I think we could prevent a lot of issues.
For example going with let's say an intramuscular when it good of effect as you potentially could have or the other I think big thing is also just on the label is what the mixing instructions would say.
One big challenge that I see is people mixing up products like modified live vaccine and they're letting it sit out for several hours when really we should be using that vaccine as quick as possible our recommendation is two to three hours of refrigerated max before that vaccine starts to become inactivated because we really need to focus on making sure that those vaccines are protected while they're both in the syringe and in the bottle during that branding time during that pride test time it seems like every time we do those vaccinations
The weather is always horrible it's always really hot or really cold and we need to protect those vaccines they're very very fragile so using extra coolers and keeping them out of appropriate temperature using things like styrofoam coolers with holes cut in them that we can use as holsters just to try to maintain that temperature as best as we can because we need to ensure that that that investment that we're putting in as a vaccine is actually getting us that benefit
We're very strict within our practice of encouraging people to do proper syringe maintenance we want to make sure that those syringes are clean and well maintained so they're getting an appropriate dosage and one thing that's not known is is inside the barrel when you're cleaning a multi-dose syringe you never ever want to put any sort of detergent .
I think that's relatively well known that cleaning solution can can disrupt or denature that vaccine particle and there's not as good in effect but there's other things we need to think about too like using antibiotics in our multi dose syringe that drives me absolutely crazy if you put tetracyclines in that multi dose syringe no amount of washing is going to be able to get that antibiotic out and that's going to deactivate the vaccine the next time we put it in and lastly even just high mineral content water regular tap water when it's used to rinse out the barrel of the syringe can cause problems with the vaccine we always encourage people to do a distilled water rinse that has no mineral content to make sure that that barrel is as clean as possible it's so incredibly important .
On top of that with the appropriate I guess technique and then on top of that the appropriate equipment it really is dependent on which class of animal that you're doing and where that vaccine is going so for example in a subcutaneous injection on a smaller calf you would need to use a smaller gauge needle and with a smaller length in in contrast to a large bull getting a footrot vaccine you would need to go with a larger gauge and a longer needle so you have to tailor that for those specific animals and your veterinarian can certainly help you determine which is most appropriate for each category
How Often Producers Should Evaluate Their Vaccination Protocol ?
We encourage our producers to do it annually both for ease of our operations in terms of making sure you guys are getting exactly what you need but also making sure there's no confusion on your end .
So we encourage everybody that once a year that we sit down with them or even over the phone and go through a customized vaccination protocol that's printed out that you have for those references that you know that in the fall you're going to be giving these specific vaccines to this specific class of animal
And it's important to do that every year for two reasons the first reason is just to keep it fresh and so the veterinarian would know what's going on with that operation what new risks have come up what the disease challenges have been for the last year but on the flip side we also need to do that to fulfill some of the regulatory components within within Western Canada we need to be able to fulfill that a valid that client relationship is established that we know that disease challenges in your herd and we're doing appropriate prescriptions to make sure that we that we fall in line with all the regulatory requirements a product like a modified live vaccine is a prescription product and we need to have that ongoing conversation to make sure that prescription is valid .
What Should Producers Be Aware Of When Developping Vaccination Protocol In 2018 and Beyond ?
The majority of the regulation changes have been focusing on the injectable and in feed anti microbials things like the penicillins and the tetracyclines that traditionally we've been able to get at at feed stores and vet clinics .
Going forward those are all going to be under prescription and there's going to be a need to have that vet client relationship and that valid prescription in place to be able to access those types of things something like a modified live vaccine there's going to be absolutely no change to how that relationship has been set up they have been prescription products you've only ever been able to get them from veterinarian or pharmacy so nothing is really going to change there but the one little logistical thing is if the feed stores are not necessarily selling as many livestock products as they used to they may not carry some of the other vaccines that they traditionally have like an eight-way which is has not required a prescription and will continue to not require a prescription but just because of the logistics of whether or not they're going to be carrying animal health products those might be pulled from the feed stores in the future but not to many changes.
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