United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture 

Veterinary Services 

Centers for Epidemiology and Animal Health December 2009 

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ 

Vaccination of Cattle and Calves 

on U.S. Beef Cow-calf 

Operations 

Vaccinations are an integral tool for preventing 

disease and for maintaining herd health. 

Vaccinations can improve overall herd health, 

resulting in decreased death loss and improved 

productivity. In addition, vaccinations can improve 

reproductive efficiency by reducing infertility, 

embryonic and fetal deaths, and abortions. 

Optimum vaccination programs vary by region, 

disease exposure, facilities, and other herd-specific 

variables. Factors such as sanitation, nutrition 

status, and concurrent infections must also be 

considered. 

While nearly all operations would benefit from 

some sort of immunization program, vaccination 

protocols may vary considerably between individual 

operations. Protocols must be tailored to an 

operation’s specific needs including, perhaps, the 

eventual marketing plan. The operation’s 

veterinarian is in an ideal position to make optimum 

recommendations. 

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National 

Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) 

conducted the Beef 2007–08 study, which focused 

on beef cow-calf health and management practices 

in 24 States.* These major beef cow-calf producing 

States represented 79.6 percent of U.S. operations 

with beef cows and 87.8 percent of U.S. beef cows. 

One of the goals of the Beef 2007–08 study 

was to take an in-depth look at vaccination 

practices on the Nation’s beef cow-calf operations. 

General vaccination practices 

Overall, almost 7 of 10 operations 

(68.9 percent) vaccinated any beef cattle or calves 

 

* States/Regions: 

West: California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico, Oregon, 

Wyoming 

Central: Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South 

Dakota 

Southeast: Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, 

Louisiana, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia 

in 2007. Operations with 1 to 49 beef cows were 

less likely than operations with 50 or more beef 

cows to vaccinate any beef cattle or calves 

(table 1). 

Table 1. Percentage of Operations that 

Vaccinated any Beef Cattle or Calves in 2007, 

by Herd Size 

Percent Operations 

Herd Size (Number of Beef Cows) 

1-49 50-99 100-199 

200 or 

More 

All 

Operations

Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent 

59.4 86.6 95.9 92.1 68.9 

A higher percentage of operations in the 

Central region (90.7 percent) vaccinated any beef 

cattle or calves in 2007 compared with operations 

in the Southeast region (59.8 percent) [table 2]. 

Table 2. Percentage of Operations that 

Vaccinated any Beef Cattle or Calves in 2007, 

by Region

Percent Operations 

Region 

West Central Southeast 

76.3 90.7 59.8 

A relatively small percentage of operations 

vaccinated calves less than 22 days of age 

(11.7 percent) [table 3]. When calves in this age 

group were vaccinated, they were vaccinated most 

commonly against clostridial disease agents. Less 

than 10 percent of operations vaccinated calves in 

this age group with any particular vaccine type. 

(revised January 2010) 
United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture 

Nearly two-thirds of operations (62.3 percent) 

vaccinated any calves aged from 22 days to 

weaning. As with younger calves, the most 

common vaccination was a 2- or 4-way clostridial 

vaccine (57.7 percent of operations). Approximately 

3 of 10 operations vaccinated calves aged from 22 

days to weaning for respiratory diseases such as 

infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) or bovine 

viral diarrhea (BVD) (29.6 and 33.1 percent of 

operations, respectively). Only 39.6 percent of 

operations vaccinated any cows for any of the listed 

diseases. 

For cows, the most commonly used vaccine 

was for Leptospira (31.7 percent of operations) 

followed by BVD (28.1 percent of operations) and 

IBR (24.6 percent of operations). Less than onethird of operations (31.5 percent) vaccinated bulls 

for any of the listed diseases. Vaccination for BVD 

and leptospirosis occurred on approximately one of 

five operations (24.3 and 21.2 percent, 

respectively). 

Table 3. Percentage of Operations by Type of Vaccine Used for Any Beef Cattle or Calves in 2007, 

and by Cattle Class: 

Percent Operations 

Cattle Class 

Vaccine Type 

Calves 

1-21 Days 

Calves 

22 Days 

Through 

Weaning 

Weaned 

Replacement Heifers 

Through 

Breeding 

Bred 

Replacement Heifers 

Through 

Calving Cows Bulls 

General (respiratory and/or reproductive) 

Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent Percent 

Infectious bovine 

rhinotracheitis, rednose (IBR) 2.1 29.6 19.4 11.9 24.6 18.2 

Bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) 3.0 33.1 25.1 13.7 28.1 24.3 

Histophilus somni 0.4 16.6 9.3 5.3 7.9 5.5 

Respiratory 

PI3V (parainfluenza 3 virus) 2.0 26.6 19.3 11.1 22.6 17.6 

BRSV (bovine respiratory 

syncytial virus) 2.0 25.4 18.1 9.7 21.1 16.2 

Pasteurella/ 

Mannheimia 1.2 12.6 5.9 3.0 4.5 3.1 

Reproductive 

Brucella abortus NA 6.4 14.8 2.8 1.0 NA 

Leptospira NA 10.5 19.9 15.1 31.7 21.2 

Campylobacter (vibrio) NA NA 12.6 10.0 19.0 13.3 

Tritrichomonas NA NA 0.7 0.9 1.0 0.7 

Neospora NA NA NA 0.4 0.3 NA 

Clostridial 

Clostridium chauvoei (blackleg) 

and/or Cl. septicum (malignant 

edema) and/or Cl. novyi and/or 

Cl. sordellii (2- or 4-way) 8.1 57.7 24.8 8.1 14.5 10.1 

Cl. perfringens C and D 

(enterotoxemia, overeating) 6.3 33.8 12.2 6.7 11.6 8.2 

Cl. tetani (tetanus) 1.8 17.6 4.7 2.1 5.7 3.6 

Digestive 

Rota/Corona 0.9 0.2 1.3 4.8 5.3 NA 

E. coli 0.5 0.7 0.9 4.9 5.5 NA 

Salmonella 0.4 0.0 0.1 0.5 0.3 0.0 

Other 

Anaplasma 0.0 0.0 0.1 0.0 0.2 0.3 

Johne’s 0.0 0.0 NA NA NA NA 

Moraxella bovis (pinkeye) 1.3 10.7 4.9 3.0 4.7 4.9 

Wart virus 0.0 0.0 0.8 0.1 0.2 0.0 

Any 11.7 62.3 36.7 24.2 39.6 31.5 
United States Department of Agriculture • Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service • Safeguarding American Agriculture 

Summary 

Over two-thirds of operations (69.4 percent) 

vaccinated some cattle or calves. Among the 

various classes of cattle and calves, calves aged 

from 22 days through weaning were the animals 

vaccinated most commonly; 62.3 percent of 

operations vaccinated some calves in this age 

group for some disease agent. 

While vaccination can be considered costly to 

an operation, it can also be an effective riskmanagement tool. Often, when a new disease is 

introduced into a naïve unvaccinated herd, it can 

have devastating effects on pregnancy, calving, 

and weaning rates, and weaning weights. 

Producers should work with their veterinarians to 

assess the true risks of disease exposure and the 

tolerance for risk. Based on that information, they 

can decide an optimum vaccination strategy for 

their herd. 

____________________________ 

For more information, contact: 

USDA:APHIS:VS:CEAH 

NRRC Building B, M.S. 2E7 

2150 Centre Avenue 

Fort Collins, CO 80526-8117 

970.494.7000 

E-mail: NAHMS@aphis.usda.gov 

http://nahms.aphis.usda.gov

#564.1209 

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