Bovine respiratory disease, commonly called “shipping fever,” is a serious animal welfare concern and the costliest disease affecting beef cattle in North America. Bovine respiratory disease is a multifactorial respiratory disease with multiple causes including viruses, bacteria and environmental stressors. Cattle affected by bovine respiratory disease generally die from late day pulmonary disease triggered by secondary bacterial diseases, like acute interstitial pneumonia. To prevent late day pulmonary disease from developing in cattle with bovine respiratory disease, and to promote antimicrobial stewardship, the International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture (ICASA) awarded Dr. Brad White, Kansas State University (K-State) production medicine professor and director of the Beef Cattle Institute, a $1,223,474 research grant. An additional $1,223,474 in matching funds were provided by Colorado State University, Innovative Livestock Services, Five Rivers Cattle Feeding K-State, Mississippi State University, Nanostring, Texas A&M University and Veterinary Research & Consulting Services for a $2,446,948 total research investment.

Bovine respiratory disease costs ranchers in the United States about $900 million annually due to animal death, reduced feed efficiency and treatment costs. The disease is commonly treated with antibiotics to reduce these losses.

“Antibiotic resistance is a major global public health threat. Use of antibiotics over time results in bacteria becoming drug resistant, and infections become difficult or impossible to treat,” said Dr. Jasmine Bruno, Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) scientific program director. “Dr. White’s research can lead to the mitigation of a prevalent secondary infection problem in feedlot cattle, which would reduce the need for antibiotics and help the beef industry use antibiotics more judiciously and reduce losses.”

To address these concerns, White is building a multi-disciplinary team to research how the secondary diseases form in cattle infected with bovine respiratory disease. The team is sampling over 2,400 cattle in Kansas and Texas to assess mortalities in feedlots, where many deaths from late day pulmonary disease occur. The research aims to provide veterinarians and producers with the necessary information to make informed prevention and treatment decisions

Specifically, the team is creating a set of late day pulmonary disease uniform criteria, or surveillance case definitions, to enable stakeholders across geographies to classify and count cases consistently, which is a priority for the cattle industry. The team is also employing late day pulmonary disease predictive analytics, or historical data, to forecast potential scenarios, to identify high-risk cattle pens. Additionally, economic data collected as part of this grant will help determine optimal diagnostic intervention plans.

The research represents the most comprehensive assessment of risk factors and pathological characteristics of late day pulmonary disease ever reported, generating valuable results that will help ranchers and veterinarians improve animal welfare, mitigate the negative impacts of this disease while promoting antimicrobial stewardship.