Pre-fresh health in dairy cows is more than a feed ration adjustment and a pen move. It’s all the little things that prepare a cow for calving and lactation. Pre-fresh health is similar to flipping on the power switch to a vacant building. You must maintain the health and wellness of pre-fresh cows so that once lactation is turned on, they are in peak physical condition for performance and production.
Pre-fresh cows are fragile. To keep them healthy from the dry period to lactation, protect their immune systems with a complete vaccination program for the difficult transition.
The goal of vaccination is to help ensure cows are at peak condition for immune responses prior to disease exposure and environmental stressors, which are abundant during the transition period.
The immune systems of pre-fresh cows are especially challenged about five weeks prior to freshening, when they start preparing for freshening and producing colostrum for their calves. This change in their immunity, coupled with their changing lactation systems, weakens their ability to respond to disease exposure.
Respiratory protection:
Not just for calves
We commonly associate disease threats during the transition period with metritis, milk fever and ketosis. However, respiratory disease challenges can’t be overlooked.
Bovine respiratory syncytial virus (BRSV), for example, doesn’t just linger in the calf barn. Pre-fresh cattle are easy targets for the disease since BRSV typically strikes when immunity is low.
And BRSV often goes undetected because clinical signs of infection, such as fever and loss of appetite, are not always obvious and often are associated with other ailments. When left undetected, BRSV can affect other adult cows and hurt your dairy’s bottom line through increases in disease, higher treatment costs and reduced milk production.
Fortunately, new evidence suggests that vaccinating cattle prior to freshening helps reduce the risk of BRSV infection during lactation and demonstrates that vaccination can have positive production and economic advantages.
Those findings are in a real-world field study that investigated the impact of vaccinating against BRSV with respiratory vaccine in adult dairy cattle.
The 315-day study involved 849 Holstein dairy cattle at a moderate-sized dairy in California. Cattle were enrolled in the study during a four-month period between December and March.
Cows were moved to the close-up pen and vaccinated approximately 21 days prior to calving with a vaccine which is labeled to help protect against BRSV, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) virus and parainfluenza 3 (PI3) virus, or a similar vaccine labeled to help protect against IBR and PI3 but not BRSV.
The study showed that cows vaccinated with the BRSV-protection vaccine prior to freshening had higher production and income. In fact, those vaccinates produced approximately 205 pounds more milk per cow per lactation and generated $36 greater income per head when compared with the non-BRSV-protection group.
If you make pre-fresh cow health a priority, including ramping up your pre-fresh respiratory vaccination program, your cows will be better prepared for the transition to the milking herd when that power switch is flipped.
Better health and maximized immunity can help provide a greater return on your investment through increased milk production and lower treatment and labor costs during lactation. PD
References omitted due to space but are available upon request. Click here to email an editor.
Edwards is a dairy technical services veterinarian with Zoetis .
Greg Edwards
Dairy Technical Services Veterinarian
Zoetis
Must-haves for pre-fresh cow health
Feed the immune system
Dry matter intake, water intake and access to feed are integral to pre-fresh cow health and immunity.
• Encourage dry matter intake with ample feedbunk space that allows each cow to access feed at the same time.
• Ensure access to fresh water at all times so cows can drink what they want, when they want and how they want.
Move beyond nutrition
Housing climate and comfort also are vital to pre-fresh cow health and immunity.
• Protect cows from sun, precipitation and wind.
• Ensure a constant exchange of fresh outside air to maintain body temperature.
• Provide a clean, dry and comfortable resting space that also accommodates the large bodies of pre-fresh cows.
