Pneumonia is the most common cause of calf mortality after the neonatal period, and prevention through housing, ventilation, and vaccination dramatically reduces welfare burden.
Calf pneumonia causes significant, prolonged suffering: fever, painful breathing, nasal discharge, and lethargy persist for days to weeks in affected calves. Even recovered calves carry permanent lung damage that impairs lifetime respiratory capacity. The welfare priority is prevention rather than treatment — and prevention is achievable through accessible interventions. Adequate housing ventilation (target 4-6 air changes per hour without draughts), deep clean dry bedding, appropriate stocking density, and colostrum-derived passive immunity form the protective foundation. Where these are in place and disease still occurs, respiratory vaccination and prompt clinical detection using standardised scoring complete the prevention package. Farms that invest in calf respiratory prevention achieve consistently lower pneumonia mortality than average.