Bovine respiratory disease is the most economically significant disease of beef and dairy cattle and causes substantial welfare harm in affected animals.
Bovine respiratory disease causes significant acute welfare harm — affected calves show fever, labored breathing, nasal discharge, and depression that impairs feeding and social behavior. Without prompt treatment, pneumonia progresses to chronic lung damage that causes permanent impairment of respiratory capacity. The welfare harm of bovine respiratory disease is amplified by the management systems that increase its incidence — commingling of calves from multiple sources, transport stress, inadequate ventilation, and barren housing. Prevention through stress reduction at the time of highest vulnerability — the weaning and transit period — combined with vaccination and rapid identification and treatment of clinical cases reduces both the incidence and severity of welfare harm.