Bovine respiratory disease complex is the most economically costly and welfare-significant health problem in cattle, preventable through improved management and vaccination.
Bovine respiratory disease represents pneumonia in cattle — an illness with all the associated pain, fever, labored breathing, and systemic illness that pneumonia causes in any mammal. The scale of BRD in the beef industry means that millions of cattle experience significant respiratory illness annually. Prevention through vaccination, reduced commingling stress, and early treatment protocols is both welfare-positive and economically rational, yet adoption of best practices remains inconsistent across the industry.