Agriculture Proud 006 - Bayer Veterinarian on Bovine Respiratory Disease

BRD. Google results tell me this is Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Germany’s official name. But that’s about all I know in German history. BRD in my life actually stands for Bovine Respiratory Disease.

On this week’s episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I catch up with Dr. Jim Little, a technical services veterinarian with Bayer Animal Health to discuss more about this disease – BRD, which has more than a $1 billion impact annually on the cattle business.

This disease may commonly affect cattle considered “high-risk” stemming from factors of “commingling with other animals, transportation stress, immune status, nutritional condition, environment conditions, and the skill level of management to diagnose cattle displaying symptoms of BRD” (Richeson, 2008).

BRD does have a major impact on health, efficiency, and performance of stocker and feeder calves. According to research from Snowder et al. (2006), BRD has a large impact on both stocker and feeder calves, with 13% and 17%, respectively, of calves being affected by the disease. Costs of the disease include not only treatment, but also losses in performance and, in some cases, death. You can read more in-depth stats about BRD in a previous post.

Dr. Little shares some background on BRD, as well as some prevention strategies farmers and ranchers can utilize. Bayer has also continued to bring more tools to the table for treatment of the BRD and we’ll touch on a few of those. Links for more information shared in the podcast include:

Zelnate.com

BayerLivestock.com

InnateImmunity.Bayer.com

As a part of the Bayer blogger program, I am not compensated for sharing this information, but am thankful for Bayer Animal Health helping me contact experts on important topics impacting our cattle and livestock business today. As always, thoughts shared are my own. Learn more about Bayer’s efforts to support agriculture advocacy by joining the AgVocate Facebook group.

I hope you enjoy this episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast. Check out all my episodes at BeefRunner.com/podcast.

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