Vaccination of cattle against major diseases including bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), and clostridial diseases is one of the highest-impact welfare interventions available. Prevention through vaccination eliminates the suffering caused by these diseases across entire herds.
Cattle experiencing BVD infection suffer respiratory and reproductive disease with immune suppression that increases susceptibility to secondary infections. Persistently infected (PI) cattle — born infected — are chronically immunocompromised and typically die young. Clostridial disease causes sudden, agonising death from toxaemia within hours of onset. Prevention through vaccination eliminates this suffering: a well-designed herd vaccination program protects all animals from diseases that would otherwise cause preventable welfare harm. The welfare-economics of vaccination are consistently favourable: disease prevention costs far less than treatment and production loss from infected herds.