Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is largely preventable through strategic vaccination programmes targeting key viral pathogens, with welfare benefits accruing from reduced disease incidence, severity, and antibiotic use.
Vaccination against key BRD pathogens is a welfare intervention that prevents suffering at the population level. Calves that develop BRD experience fever, respiratory distress, reduced feed intake, and chronic lung damage if they survive — all avoidable welfare harms that vaccines significantly reduce. The economic and welfare case for proactive vaccination is strong, yet many farms use vaccines reactively rather than strategically. Working with farm vets to design herd-specific vaccination protocols timed to the highest-risk periods — weaning, purchase, and transport — maximises welfare benefit. Reducing antibiotic use through effective vaccination also contributes to long-term antimicrobial resistance management.