This section is on cattle infectious diseases. These are all questions that have been submitted or that I have been inspired to talk about because of a question submitted. If you have any topics that you would like to have discussed please feel free to email me with the topic or question.
Shipping fever is the name given to a complex of respiratory diseases that manifests in cattle after severe stress (usually shipping). The stresses of transport, vaccination, weaning, dehorning, etc act to lower the immune system of the cattle. Viruses then invade the lung of the cattle and establish an infection which further lowers the effectiveness of the immune system. Bacteria from the environment invade the lung and, because of the immunesuppression, the cattle are unable to fight the bacteria effectively. Thus, severe, acute pneumonia develops. Long term antibiotics are required to clear the infection and the success rate is low to moderate. Many, many cattle die from this every year and many more fail to make a full recovery. Efforts to reduce the stress on cattle and to increase immunity by intense vaccination schedules are making some progress in decreasing the incidence of this disease.
I have researched and answered these questions to the best of my ability. But I am human and make mistakes. If there is any part of my answer that you feel is incorrect, please let me know. The last thing I want is to disseminate false or incorrect information.