Vaccinations for Dairy Cattle
Vaccinations for Dairy Cattle
Dairy cattle are generally on a different vaccination schedule than beef cattle, mainly because most dairies calve year-round, rather than a defined calving season. Most vaccinations are based around when a cow will calve, and this may be any time of year—and newborn calves receive their first vaccines when they are born.
Dr. Rob Lynch (Dairy Herd Health Extension Specialist at Cornell University PRO-DAIRY, a statewide Dairy Extension program) says vaccinations at dairies revolve around their production cycles, though some disease risks can be more seasonal.
“Dairies working with their veterinarian go through a risk assessment to identify the diseases of concern and then look at the bigger picture of how we can prevent them or lower exposure. This includes biosecurity practices, hygiene and general management that could lower those risks. Then we try to figure out if there are vaccines for the diseases we are concerned about, and where we can fit that into the existing vaccination protocol,” says Lynch.
“The American Association of Bovine Practitioners (AABP) developed vaccine guidelines for veterinarians. This is similar to the approach in equine medicine; we have core vaccines (that every animal should receive) and risk-based vaccines. Our core vaccines cover diseases that are prevalent everywhere.” Nearly every animal could be at some risk of being exposed to these bovine diseases, like BVD, IBR, BRSV, etc.
“Most vaccination protocols include some type of respiratory vaccine and some reproductive vaccines. We commonly include some of the clostridial vaccines in dairy programs—to include blackleg, malignant edema, and sometimes tetanus and Clostridium perfringens.” These bacteria typically can live for long periods of time dormant in the soil.
“Risk-based vaccines include some that are not included in those core vaccines. Some herds use mastitis vaccination, particularly coliform mastitis. Some dairies incorporate scours vaccines,” Lynch says. The scour vaccines are administered to the calves at birth or to their dams prior to calving dates, to boost colostral antibodies.
Dr. Dean Elder, Attending Veterinarian at the University of New Hampshire, teaches Pre-Veterinary students and is also the Station Veterinarian for the two university dairies. “The management of a dairy is a yearlong process,” he says. “You have cows you are breeding, and cows that are calving, so when you establish a vaccine schedule and protocol it depends on each cow.” It starts with birth of the calf, for the first calf vaccinations, and also when each cow becomes pregnant—for her own vaccinations. The vaccines given will depend somewhat on region and risk; some dairies need to vaccinate for more diseases than others.
“When I am teaching students, I tell them there are some basic core vaccines that every dairy must give, but we also need to evaluate every dairy individually, to determine which other vaccines might be needed. I never say that all dairies need ‘this’ vaccine and ‘that’ vaccine. Devising a vaccination protocol should be done in consultation with the herd health veterinarian, to determine which vaccines are appropriate for their specific situation,” says Elder.
There are dozens of different vaccines, with multiple companies creating various brands–and various combinations of antigens for different diseases. There are many to choose from, for each disease you want to address. “Not every situation will be the same. What we do here in New Hampshire will be different from what dairies do in Florida, which will be different from Arizona or Idaho,” he says.
“There are, however, some basic vaccines we rely on and always recommend. At calving we give each calf a standard oral vaccine for rotavirus and coronavirus. Another thing that is always important is that those calves receive good quality colostrum. That’s the single biggest protection we can give calves against diseases they may encounter.” This is like health insurance.
“We try to get at least 4 quarts of colostrum into each newborn calf soon after birth and also some other products that we can give orally. These products contain specific antibodies that help protect against coronavirus, rotavirus and E. coli and newborn calves receive them that same day, as well. These can help curb the number one disease—scours—that we see in baby calves,” Elder says. One thing that helps cows provide the most protective colostrum is the pre-calving vaccines they themselves receive, to boost their production of antibodies.
When calves get a little older—four to six months of age—they start on a regular schedule for the core vaccines. For many cattle, especially beef cattle, core vaccines include the clostridial diseases like blackleg, malignant edema, Clostridium
perfingens type C and D, etc. “In our conventional dairy, however, we do not vaccinate for Clostridia because we don’t have issue with these diseases,” says Elder. “The possibility is there, however the probability is very low.”
“In our organic dairy, however, cows must be out on pasture for a minimum of 120 days. We use Clostridia vaccines for them, because they are exposed to more risk and we have seen Clostridium in the past; it showed up in some of those cows so we now vaccinate them,” he says.
“Just as with the beef industry, our core vaccines include the viruses that cause what we call the shipping fever complex (bovine respiratory disease). We vaccinate for BVD, IBR, PI-3, and BRSV,” Elder says,
There are two categories of vaccines for viral diseases—modified-live vaccines and killed vaccines. Modified-live will typically have two components in the package. There will be a dry pellet or powder in one bottle and a sterile diluent or some other fluid to mix with it, just before you use it. You mix both of them together and follow label directions because often both components contain an important part of the vaccine.
Don’t save left-over fractions once those mix together. The modified live virus only lasts a few hours and even the bacterial components won’t last more than 24 hours, and the vaccine is no longer viable. It’s best to use the vaccine within one to two hours after you mix it together, to ensure that it will be effective. If you only have a few animals to vaccinate at the same time, utilize the smallest-dose bottle so you don’t have to waste so much when you throw away what’s left. Mix a new bottle for the new group of animals.
“In our area, a bacterial disease we worry about is leptospirosis. In Arizona (very dry conditions) it might not be much of a problem, but here in New Hampshire this disease is always lurking around. We use a 5-way Lepto vaccine to protect against the most common strains,” says Elder.
“We may use a 9-way vaccine, and sometimes a 10-way vaccine that includes these strains of Lepto. Other times We may use the 10-way that includes Mannheimia bacteria that is just another one to help protect against upper respiratory infections.” There are many different brands and combinations available.
“Those vaccinations get boostered in the cows at the time of dry-off. Those cows also usually receive an E.coli K-99 vaccine.” This helps boost antibody production that will end up in the colostrum to protect their calves from that kind of scours.
“Another thing we do here in New Hampshire is vaccinate against brucellosis. Since we are a brucellosis-free state, this is not a requirement. However, here at the University dairies we still vaccinate all the heifers (while they are still under 12 months of age). One way to keep our state free of this disease is to vaccinate. This helps us in the long run if there are heifers we sell.” Then those heifers can go anywhere in the country because they have vaccinations.
“The last thing we standardly do, because we are a University and have over 100 students who are in contact with and work very closely with the cows is vaccinate our cows for rabies,” says Elder. This is a precaution for the people who handle the cattle, since it’s hard to tell if a cow has rabies; symptoms are a bit different, compared to a dog or cat. Anyone who comes into contact with the saliva of an infected cow or examining the mouth of a cow that seems to have trouble swallowing for instance, could be at risk.
“An infected cow could start shedding the virus before you realize something is wrong with her, so it’s a human safety issue. Obviously we don’t want our cows to get rabies, but the human factor is a big issue. We are an open farm and have thousands of people visit and this is just another reason that we vaccinate our cattle,” Elder says.
“To have everything covered by law, the rabies vaccination needs to be done every year. Technically the protection could last a bit longer, but in order to have legal coverage, we vaccinate every cow once a year, and this is in our paperwork.”
Some vaccines are given by the dairy staff and some by a veterinarian. Brucellosis vaccination must be given by a veterinarian. “I have to do those. With some of the other vaccines, sometimes I do them and sometimes other staff members will do them. If we wanted true legal coverage, in terms of rabies, for instance, I would have to give that one, and also write out certificates for every single cow. This is the case when vaccinating dogs and cats. But in the agricultural community, we usually have it done by the staff and it gets recorded. It is a coverage so that we can at least show that it was complete. We don’t have the same stipulations for cats and dogs,” says Elder.
The staff is very capable of doing vaccinations. “Part of our teaching here is to enable some of our students who are in our dairy classes to do vaccinations, but this is always overseen by their PhD instructor or by myself; we teach them to do it correctly and to handle the vaccine correctly. Improper vaccine handling is one of the single biggest reasons for vaccine failure. Failure to mount immunity can be human error rather than due to the vaccine or the animal,” he explains.
There are some diseases the farm doesn’t have to worry about. “Since we do artificial insemination and don’t have any bulls breeding the cows, we usually don’t worry about vibrio (campylobacter) or trichomoniasis,” Elder says.
The cattle on a dairy are very easy to vaccinate. Since they receive handling regularly from birth they are tamer than most beef cattle. “They receive handling by dozens of people and are very user-friendly. When calves are first born they have no choice because they are easy to restrain. When they are four to six months of age it just takes two people—someone gets a halter on them to hold them still or tie them up and then vaccinate them. With adult cows we generally have them in tie stalls in our conventional dairy. At the organic dairy we simply put them in headgates or stanchions,” he says.
Since the cows are all on a different calving schedule, none of them get the same vaccines at the same time. “We just need to follow our records. One week we do a certain bunch and the next week another group, etc. You have to keep up on record-keeping, as with everything else,” says Elder.
“These are things you don’t want to skip or skimp on, for not only the short-term health of the animals, but long-term health as well, for the entire herd. You want to be able to keep these cows as long as possible, while they are producing milk. You are not just raising them for 8 months and shipping them off, like beef calves. A dairy cow must be there and stay healthy as long as possible. The health and care for these animals is paramount,” he says.
Proper administration techniques are important for every vaccination. “Always read the label, make sure you know the proper amount for the dose, and the proper location. Is it subcutaneous? Is it intramuscular? Or is it oral or intranasal, like for some of the calf vaccines? All those things are very important, as is proper storage and keeping track of expiration dates. Don’t throw the bottle of 9-way on the dashboard of your pickup truck and drive around before you use it! Storage and handling of any vaccine or medication is very important.”
Vaccine technology has come a long way in the past few decades and we have good ways to help prevent diseases. “Over the years that I have been in practice I now see more concerted effort and understanding, with the younger generation of cattle people. They fully understand and take things to heart in terms of doing it correctly.” If they have dedication to what they are doing, they are concerned about the health and welfare of these animals.
“Following proper scheduling for initial vaccines and their boosters is important, particularly when cattle are young. After you give those first shots, you need to give the boosters within the appropriate amount of time. You can’t forget about them and do it four months later. Your records will help you with that,” Elder says.
“A lot of the dairy software available today is good at sending out notes and alerts. First thing in the morning it may tell you that these are the specific cows that need vaccinations, and these are the ones that need to get pregnancy checks, etc.” It’s all part of running an efficient dairy and keeping the cattle healthy and productive.
Lynch points out that the day-to-day farm management is very important in terms of the vaccines you use. “Is it a closed herd with no animals coming and going? Closed herds have less risk of exposure to animals with unknown health status. With an open herd, the risk is higher—if you bring in new animals or have some animals that are leaving the farm and then coming back after they’ve mingled with other cattle. In those situations we may utilize vaccines more aggressively,” he says.
“We want to make these protocols are doable—not too complicated or hard to follow—or it won’t get done consistently. It might depend on what kind of handling facilities and how many people are available to finish these tasks, in a year-round production setting. Vaccinations need to happen on a weekly, every-other-week or monthly basis, year round, so we need to make sure we have the ability to complete this task easily and correctly,” says Lynch.
This is all part of a working relationship with the veterinarian. “We are reviewing these protocols at least annually, to see if circumstances have changed. Maybe it’s been a closed herd but we had to buy some animals so now its an open herd. Employees come and go; maybe we have to train new employees on proper handling and administration of vaccines. New diseases can come along, like the avian influenza (bird flu). New diseases may emerge—maybe completely new, or just new to a certain region. For instance, ten years ago it wasn’t unusual to not see clostridial vaccines used in dairies in northern climates but things are changing and now we run into this more commonly.”
Vaccines and vaccine availability may change also. “Something we purchased regularly go on back order and become hard to get. Things are always changing; we must make sure our protocol still meets the needs of the farm and is being followed,” says Lynch. It’s all part of trying to keep the herd as healthy and safe as possible.
“Vaccination is a task we do frequently, so it becomes a matter of how to fit it in amongst all the other things we have to do on the farm. Sometimes it can integrate seamlessly and it’s not that hard to complete, and other times it might be forgot, and we may suddenly realize it’s time to vaccinate, on top of all the other things in a busy day. We have to make sure we have the right vaccines, in enough quantity, and good records that let us know who needs vaccinating and when.” Record keeping is important, to keep track of everything.
Things do keep changing and we have to make sure that everyone involved, from the veterinarian, to the owner, to the managers, to the employees is following the same protocol. Storage and handling is very important. “Vaccines can be ruined very easily. Some vaccines are more sensitive than others but we have to make sure that when we are administering the vaccine we are eliciting an immune response. If we mishandle that vaccine we will impair the efficacy, and increase the likelihood of reactions like anaphylaxis or injection site swellings and infections, etc.” says Lynch.
We also need to remember that even though these are dairy cows, when they finish their milking career they will enter the beef supply. Also, we have to think about Beef Quality Assurance. We don’t want injection site abscesses or blemishes that will affect the carcass, and we don’t want to give any injections too close to when the animal might go to slaughter.
“Vaccines all have USDA-mandated withholding times based on local inflammatory reactions associated with the injections. They are not quite the same as drug withholds, but will manage similarly–typically 21 days at least. We have to make sure we are following that withhold, and this is another reason why we keep records,” says Lynch.
This information is all on the label, so it is important to read the label before administering the vaccine. “It is tiny print, and usually stuck in a foldup label on the bottle or in the box in a fold-out, but it includes everything you need to know about that vaccine. You can also rely on your veterinarian to steer you through any questions you might have regarding the vaccines and whether they are the ones you need to utilize to help your cattle stay healthy.”
Also remember that vaccines are not 100% effective in preventing disease. “We can have a great vaccine program, but if we’re not being careful with hygiene, biosecurity and general management, we can still have problems. We have to do all of these things; vaccination is part of a herd health program, but not the only part,” Lynch says.
By Heather Smith Thomas
February 2026
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