When I sat in Beef Production 101 at uni 15 years ago I was overwhelmed by how complex Pestivirus felt as a disease. Do you feel the same?… When are PI’s made, when are congenital defects seen, should we run a PI with our breeders, should we blood test, should we ear notch … What I’ve learnt since graduating … JUST KEEP IT SIMPLE!
🗣️“Protect your pregnancies! VACCINATE ALL BREEDING FEMALES WITH PESTIGARD and move on with your life” 💃
But why?
Facts:
⭐️ Pestivirus is the leading disease cause of economic loss in the entire southern beef industry
⭐️ Pestivirus is crazy common - 90% of herds have a history of exposure
⭐️ Pestigard vaccine is now > 80% effective at protecting the fetus from infection
⭐️ New data shows running PIs with heifers pre joining has highly variable immunoconversion (due to variations in PI shedding volume and commingling degree) leading to a false sense of protection!
⭐️ Beef economics are completely different this decade: calves and pregnancies are worth too much and the vaccine is cheaper, safe and more effective
⭐️ Pestivirus is now increasingly, at least in part, involved in most disease investigations we complete: poor preg tests and calvings, abortion storms, deformed calves, calves breaking long bones and as part of immunosupression leading into syndromes like scours and bovine respiratory disease (BRD)
⭐️ in our opinion, bleeding and testing for current immunity levels before deciding to vaccinate is too complicated to achieve at scale and few operators have the time to pursue it reliably year after year for this approach to beat simple blanket vaccination.
Pestigard Dosage:
✅ 2 doses initially 4weeks- 6 months apart
✅ Safe at any stage of pregnancy but protective immunity not until 2 weeks after the second dose
✅ Maintain immunity with an annual booster
A good way to remember is if you’re buying 7 in 1 for breeding females, do I need to be buying Pestigard as well?
So if you haven’t started yet- the sooner you do the better - do it this preg test!!
