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. 2025 Apr 25:12:1502455.
doi: 10.3389/fvets.2025.1502455. eCollection 2025.

Factors affecting respiratory vaccination in Oklahoma cow-calf operations

Kristina Harwell  1 , Amy D Hagerman  2 , Kellie Curry Raper  2 , Hannah Shear  2 , Rosslyn Biggs  3 , Barry Whitworth  4
Affiliations

Factors affecting respiratory vaccination in Oklahoma cow-calf operations

Kristina Harwell et al. Front Vet Sci. .

Abstract

Introduction: Respiratory disease is a leading cause of death loss among US beef cattle operations and has significant lingering negative impacts on calf health, performance, and financial returns as they move through the supply chain. It can also negatively impact cowherd reproductive performance. Yet, a significant number of beef cattle operations have not adopted respiratory vaccination for calves or the breeding herd.

Methods: This analysis explores the potential reasons why some producers vaccinate their cattle and some do not, including how influential factors regarding vaccination adoption differ between calves and the breeding herd using Probit regression analysis.

Results: Regression results indicate that, for calves, the likelihood of respiratory vaccine adoption is most influenced by herd size and the use of other vaccines. Breeding herd vaccination decisions are more complex, influenced not by herd size but rather by disease knowledge and risk perception, producer education, and cost barriers.

Discussion: Herd health management education efforts through veterinarians and extension services can use these results to better target respiratory vaccination information addressing some of these barriers, improving national cattle herd health.

Keywords: beef cattle; biosecurity; herd health management; producer survey; respiratory vaccination.

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Conflict of interest statement

KH was employed by Simmons Pet Food. The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Frequency of calfhood respiratory vaccinations administered prior to marketing, 2021. Calculated by the authors using 2022 cow-calf biosecurity survey data. Percentage of the Oklahoma respondents that answered the question “Please indicate whether you do this [practice] for your cow-calf operation – Respiratory vaccines for calves (IRB, BVD, boosters, etc.) prior to marketing.” Then followed up with “If yes, how many rounds?”
Figure 2
Figure 2
Producer-reported administration of multiple respiratory vaccines, 2021. Calculated by the authors using 2022 cow-calf biosecurity survey data. Percentage of the Oklahoma respondents that answered the question “Please indicate whether you do this [practice] for your cow-calf operation – Respiratory vaccines for calves (IRB, BVD, boosters, etc.) prior to marketing.” Then respondents selected one or more of the timing options “At branding or 1–3 months old,” “2–4 weeks pre-weaning,” “at weaning,” or “post-weaning”.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Respiratory and clostridial vaccination rates for calves and breeding herd, statewide and by region. Calculated by the authors using 2022 cow-calf biosecurity survey data. * Percentage of total respondents in Oklahoma that responded to the use of respiratory (RVX) and clostridial (CVX) vaccination for calves and/or for the breeding herd in the survey. † Reported percentages are unweighted, sample means. ‡Regions are broken by Interstate I-35 (east/west) and Interstate I-40 (north/south) to create regions for the northwest (NW), southwest (SW), northeast (NE), and southeast (NE).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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