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The Agricultural Research Service, which is part of the USDA, has developed a new oral vaccine that may help U.S. cattle producers cut their losses from a disease that costs more than $1 billion annually. Bovine Respiratory Disease, commonly called shipping fever, costs more than all other cattle diseases combined. Commercialization of the new vaccine, which is given to cattle with their feed instead of injected into the animals' muscle, may be three or four years away. Field trials involved two groups of calves -- a high risk and a low risk group. Deaths among the high risk calves fed the oral dose were reduced from 16 percent to only four percent. Pasteurella haemolytica -- the main culprit behind shipping fever -- killed 16 percent of the unvaccinated animals, but none of the vaccinated animals. The oral dose also protected calves within four days, instead of the 10 to 14 days needed by current injectable vaccines. Injectable vaccines often produce lesions in animals, which could be avoided by use of oral or intranasal vaccination. The research for the ARS-developed vaccines was partly funded by the Biotechnology Research and Development Consortium in Peoria, IL. In other research, a new grass that's high in magnesium, HiMag, may help protect livestock from grass tetany or hypomagnesemia. ARS and University of Missouri researchers developed HiMag, which is also high in calcium. The new grass, known as tall fescue, is suitable for rainfed pastures in eastern, southeastern and Pacific Northwestern states and British Columbia. |
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