Management of bovine respiratory disease in beef stocker calves – an overview of current evidence and recommendations

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the most common and costly diseases affecting beef and dairy cattle of all age groups and production classes in North America. Recent stud­ies have shown that BRD affects nursing beef calves on more than 20% of cow-calf operations in the United States and is re­sponsible for more than 90% of all morbidity and mortality on stocker operations.1-3 In feedlots, BRD affects nearly 20% of all animals on feed and is responsible for approximately 75% of all morbidity and 50% of all mortality. Similarly, BRD is estimated to affect more than 22% of all nursing dairy calves and is re­sponsible for approximately 20% of all deaths that occur in this population.4 Moreover, BRD is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in weaned dairy heifers and this single disease syndrome is responsible for nearly 60% of all producer report­ed deaths in this age group.