Systematic treatment protocols for bovine respiratory disease improve welfare through early intervention, appropriate drug selection, and treatment failure recognition.
Respiratory disease treatment protocols directly determine the duration of suffering for affected cattle. Operations with systematic protocols - defined treatment criteria, appropriate drug selection, clear retreatment timelines, and NSAID use - achieve shorter disease duration and better welfare outcomes than those treating empirically. The welfare imperative is ensuring that first treatment is timely and appropriate, and that treatment failure is recognized and acted upon quickly rather than allowing persistent disease under inadequate treatment.