lepto/bvd problem

bsn

Anybody know if you can vaccinate a herd of cows now for lepto and bvd. I have 100 cow herd half caving in next 6 to 8 weeks the rest march/april. I have never vaccinated before and i know i have a problem. will vaccination cause abortions or other problems in either herd, i am mainly worried about spring herd can anyone shed some light or tell me where to look

gingerGiant

Yeah you can vaccinate for both, we done it last year, one is just a once of vaccine the other needs two shots three weeks apart, forget which is which.

Vaccination didn't cause us any problems but we vaccinated mostly after calving had occured as we only realised we had a problem mid calving

Best advice is to talk to your vet.

adne

do all females in a herd need to be vacinated or is it just Cows and In Calfs??

leg wax

adne wrote: »

do all females in a herd need to be vacinated or is it just Cows and In Calfs??

breeding bull as well for lepto not sure about bvd

Cowmad

We started it 3 years ago and had no problems with it.And i think you have to do every thing first time with it and again 3 weeks later Breeding bull included.You could also look in to doing your replacement heifers.Your vet is the best bet to get advise

Benny Mack

yeah we started doing ours this year. we had a lot of cows not in calf last year and were advised to vaccinate. the first year is the expensive one as you have to do them twice whereas every year after that you only do them the once. according to the experts the mojority of herds have lepto & bvd. its the best money you will ever spend on your farm.

irish_bob

bsn wrote: »

Anybody know if you can vaccinate a herd of cows now for lepto and bvd. I have 100 cow herd half caving in next 6 to 8 weeks the rest march/april. I have never vaccinated before and i know i have a problem. will vaccination cause abortions or other problems in either herd, i am mainly worried about spring herd can anyone shed some light or tell me where to look

you have to do them twice , one month apart the 1st year and then give them a booster shot each year afterwards , i have been told that in a spring calving situation , its a waste of time injecting them at this time of year , you need to do it in april , close to the start of the breeding season

whelan1

we do them for lepto twice a year

John_F

1st job is talk to your vet, then he will probably want to blood sample suspected animals, if its BVD then the calves will probably be the ones to show it, especially if there was alot of deaths last year, as irish_bob said april for vaccination, our vet said around patricks day. 1st time vaccinate all breeding stock and if you miss 1 year your back to square 1

bvd cant be brought in by faeces and must be through a breeding animal e.g. a bull and then the calf gets it and the cycle goes from there

definalty not enough info on BVD out there as alot of vets have very different theories of how it goes from the infected calf to the herd

talk to the vet!!

irish_bob

John_F wrote: »

1st job is talk to your vet, then he will probably want to blood sample suspected animals, if its BVD then the calves will probably be the ones to show it, especially if there was alot of deaths last year, as irish_bob said april for vaccination, our vet said around patricks day. 1st time vaccinate all breeding stock and if you miss 1 year your back to square 1

bvd cant be brought in by faeces and must be through a breeding animal e.g. a bull and then the calf gets it and the cycle goes from there

definalty not enough info on BVD out there as alot of vets have very different theories of how it goes from the infected calf to the herd

talk to the vet!!

agree with most of this post although it also depends on which vet you talk to as many of them will tell you to vacinate for everything so they can then sell you the stuff , as for bvd , its much more complex than lepto , it can come and go and is hard to pin down

John_F

ya the vets are making alot of money from selling these products, a certain drug company were at the ploughing last week showing the new 4 in 1 pour on ( im sure you can guess which 1 especially with all the ads) and the sales man said that the new product can also help prevent milk fever, and i asked how, he sai by having a healthy liver. when he said to ask my vet and that they would recommend the product i asked him how much money do the vets receive from pharmaceuticals for having there product on sale, being advertised and at the eye level of the customer... there was no comment

bsn

Thanks lads, It seems spring time is the best time to vaccinate, the vets dont seem to know much about bvd i was hoping that vaccinating would cut losses but i think its too late this year.
Anyway ill start next year if only for peace of mind. On the vaccines, the 4in1 pour on i didnt see it who sells it? because they are expensive here they are only about half the price in the UK and a fraction of the price in the US.

krazyklown

[DISCLAIMER]hi i work in a pharmacy and we sell both vaccines.[/DISCLAIMER]

we do the intervet bovillis bvd vaccine. for cows the reccomended vaccination is two injections four weeks apart in the first year and a booster every year after that. vaccination is to be completed four weeks before service to protect the foetus for the entire time of the pregnancy. off the top of my head if bvd strikes an unvaccinated cow in the first trimester she may lose the calf or have have calves with severe defects. also there is something about an animal being born that is PI - permanently infected. i dont quite understand it, i think that some animals get the virus, lose the calf and recover whereas other animals get the virus, have a seemingly fine calf but the calf is PI which means it will spend its life constantly shedding the virus and infecting other animals (something to do with the infected calf having the virus before it develops an immune system that its immune system actually thinks the virus is a natural part of the calf). more info at http://www.intervet.co.uk/Products_Public/Bovilis_BVD/090_Product_Datasheet.asp

you can expect to pay somewhere between 4 and 6 euro a head.
as far as i remember bvd can be spread through nasal contact, secretions etc. but open for correction. that link also says that it can be given to pregnant animals.

lepto affects fertility, theres an article here http://archives.tcm.ie/westernpeople/2003/10/08/story16052.asp

it says "Cows should be vaccinated in spring or in the autumn at drying off. Heifer calves should be vaccinated at turnout to prevent leptospirosis causing infertility and abortion in the first breeding season. "

i cant remember the price but i think its something like 70 euro for the 25 dose. i think you have to give two injections the first year and an annual booster.

like the others you should probably chat with your vet to make sure that this is the problem you are having, a blood test will confirm it. from my own feedback the people i know that have vaccinated have seen a notable improvement - better conception rates and reduced breakages.

also lepto is zoonotic which means it can be passed onto humans:eek:

hope that helps