AUDIO: Larry Hawkins, Bayer Animal Health
Cattle can contract Bovine Respiratory Disease (BRD) during the fall, when temperatures move from warm to cool. Larry Hawkins serves as senior technical services veterinarian for Bayer Animal Health. Hawkins says it?s important for producers to vaccinate their herd for BRD.
?Regardless of what you call it, it gets a producer?s bottom line,? Hawkins says. ?It has an effect on all classes of cattle. It?s the leading cause of death loss and sickness in cattle.?
Hawkins encourages producers to treat cattle for BRD while weaning calves.
?If a cow/calf producer is weaning calves, gives their calves the pre-weaning vaccination and has (the calves) weaned for 45 days, data indicates their chances of improved health is pretty great,? Hawkins said. ?But, we still get those breaks and have producers who do not do those preventative vaccines.?
Bayer Animal Health offers a pre-weaning vaccination for BRD. The vaccination, called Zelnate, simulates white blood cells to prepare the animal?s immune system for fights against infection. Bayer Animal Health also offers Baytril, a premium antibiotic used to treat respiratory diseases such as BRD.
Hawkins notes lice can become a problem in the fall as well.
?When it?s warm, lice don?t reproduce much. When it gets to be September or October and things start to cool off, those lice then start to reproduce,? Hawkins said. ?A single female lice in September can easily be(come) a million in December or January. Those populations expand from a carrier animal with a few lice to the whole herd becoming infested.?
Bayer Animal Health offers Clean-Up II to producers wanting to fend off lice.
?It?s claim to fame is it kills the eggs and the adults,? Hawkins said. ?All insects have an egg and adult stage. When we kill both of them, we?ve taken care of the lifecycle, so we can go several days without an issue of lice infestation.?
Hawkins reports Bayer?s Animal Health Division receive positive reviews of the product last year and look forward to helping producers attack lice again this year.
