Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) complex is the most economically significant and welfare-impactful disease in cattle globally. Evidence-based prevention and treatment are welfare priorities.
Bovine respiratory disease causes significant suffering in affected cattle. Clinical pneumonia involves fever, respiratory distress, painful coughing, nasal discharge, and profound depression. Cattle with active BRD spend more time lying, have reduced feed intake, lose body condition, and show behavioral signs of pain and malaise. Chronic survivors develop lung adhesions and abscesses that cause permanent impairment of respiratory function and welfare.
The multi-stressor nature of BRD onset — transport stress, weaning stress, novel social environments, and pathogen exposure all converging — represents a welfare challenge at multiple levels simultaneously. Reducing the number of stressors experienced concurrently through improved management protocols reduces both BRD incidence and the welfare burden of stressor-mediated immune suppression.
Vaccination against the viral pathogens predisposing to BRD — IBR, BVD, BRSV, PI3 — provides meaningful protection when administered appropriately timed before high-risk periods. Metaphylaxis — treating high-risk cattle with long-acting antibiotics on arrival — reduces the welfare burden of BRD in known high-risk groups. Early individual treatment at first signs of disease with appropriate antibiotic selection, anti-inflammatory therapy, and supportive care maximizes welfare outcomes.