Do You Know About Mycoplasma bovis?

Help protect your calves against a leading contributor to BRD and lifelong profitability implications.

Most producers know that calfhood pneumonia, or bovine respiratory disease (BRD), is one of the leading health concerns impacting calves on even the best-managed dairies. The disease challenges young calves face when they are most vulnerable can have lifelong productivity and profitability implications. Calves that experience pneumonia in the first three months of life are more likely to experience delays in age at breeding and calving and decreased milk production.1

There is a particular pathogen of BRD that producers need to look out for: Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis). As one of the main pathogens of calf pneumonia, M. bovis is a major contributor to chronic BRD cases. In fact, a recent study showed that M. bovis was isolated in 67% of calves with clinical signs of BRD.2

Due to difficulty of early diagnosis of infection, poor response to antibiotic therapy, and limited efficacy of available commercial vaccines to help protect against the pathogen,3 Mycoplasma bovis has caused economic and animal welfare hardship for the dairy industry.

Help protect your young calves with these must-know facts.

Mycoplasma bovis is known to have vague early symptoms with an insidious onset.

The pathogen can hide in young calves for weeks without showing signs of sickness and can be accompanied by other infections to further complicate early diagnosis.3 Due to this, M. bovis cases can become chronic and can lead to calf mortality and irreversible lung damage. Watch out for these symptoms to help diagnose respiratory infection early:

•  Lack of appetite and poor weight gain
•  Drooping ears
• Rapid breathing and coughing
• · Fever
• · Head tilting to suggest ear infection
• · Lameness to suggest inflamed and swollen joints
• · Eye and nasal discharge

There are innovations in Mycoplasma bovis protection.

Although killed and autogenous vaccines have been available to producers, Mycoplasma bovis continues to be a problem.3 Zoetis brings innovations in Mycoplasma bovis protection with the first modified-live vaccine for M.bovis: Protivity®. Your vaccination program can now cover the major respiratory pathogens that challenge your calves.

With Protivity, producers can start to vaccinate as early as one week of age versus competitors’ administration of as early as 45 days.4 A challenge study found that when calves received two doses of the vaccine, Protivity generated 74% (p<0.0001) reduction in total lung lesions (mean percentage) relative to controls.5

In addition to evaluating vaccination protocols to make sure all pathogens are accounted for, producers must remember to apply management protocols that promote a healthy environment and help minimize the impact of infections such as:

• Screen, quarantine and receive health records of purchased animals before joining the herd.
• Utilize effective colostrum management.
• Maintain proper sanitation of equipment and pens.
• Provide adequate nutrition so calves maintain dry matter intake.
• Minimize commingling where possible.
• Segregate group housing by sex and age.
• Heat treat colostrum and pasteurize waste milk to reduce the risk of M. bovis transmission.
• Provide good air ventilation and avoid overcrowding.
• Plan for a low-stress transition and weaning process.
• Take the time to educate farm teams of the key clinical signs of BRD to help diagnose disease early.
• Work with your veterinarian to outline key diagnosis criteria and treatment protocols.
• Consider an intranasal vaccination to help prevent infections.

Mycoplasma bovis can be resistant to antibiotic therapy.

Mycoplasma bovis differs from other BRD pathogens because it lacks a cell wall and, as a result, is unaffected by antibiotic therapy that attack cell walls. It can be difficult to diagnose respiratory disease caused by M. bovis early in calves, so the delay can impact treatment outcomes too. A few treatment considerations:

•  Ensure that the antibiotic therapy you use is effective against the main pathogens of BRD: Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida, Histophilus somni and M. bovis.
• Draxxin® KP (tulathromycin and ketoprofen injection) Injectable Solution from Zoetis is labeled to treat M. bovis in dairy replacement heifers and provides 14 days of BRD therapy with a fever-reducing NSAID to help improve animal well-being.4*

Important Safety Information

Draxxin KP Draxxin KP has a pre-slaughter withdrawal time of 18 days in cattle. Not for use in female dairy cattle 1 year of age or older, including dry dairy cows. Not for use in beef calves less than 2 months of age, dairy calves, and veal calves. A withdrawal period has not been established for this product in pre-ruminating calves. Do not use in animals previously found to be hypersensitive to tulathromycin and ketoprofen. See full Prescribing Information for Draxxin KP

References

1. Stanton AL, Kelton DF, LeBlanc SJ, Wormuth J, Leslie KE. The effect of respiratory disease and a preventative antibiotic treatment on growth, survival, age at first calving, and milk production of dairy heifers. J Dairy Sci. 2012;95(9):4950-4960.

2. Deepak, Aly SS, Love WJ, et al. et al. Etiology and risk factors for bovine respiratory disease in pre-weaned calves on California dairies and calf ranches. Prev Vet Med. 2021 Dec;197:105506.

3. Maunsell FP, Woolums AR, Francoz D, et al. Mycoplasma bovis infections in cattle. J Vet Intern Med. 2011;25:772-783.

4. Based on approved labels of Protivity™, Mycoplaz®, Myco-B One Dose®, Myco-Bac® B and MpB Guard™.

5. Data on file, Study Report No. B832R-US-17-665, Zoetis Inc.

6. Data on file, Study Report No. A431N-US-16-418, Zoetis Inc.

* Animals treated with Draxxin® KP showed numerically improved attitude and respiratory scores compared with animals treated with saline and Draxxin® post-treatment.