Y. Rauff et al., EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS OF A SURVEY OF DAIRY PRODUCERS ON DAIRY-HERD BIOSECURITY AND VACCINATION AGAINST BOVINE VIRAL DIARRHEA, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 209(9), 1996, pp. 1618-1622
A survey on biosecurity and vaccination practices was sent to 632 dair
y producers in Pennsylvania to determine the proportion of the approxi
mately 12,500 dairy herds in Pennsylvania that might be at risk for ou
tbreaks of vaccine-preventable diseases, Most producers relied on thei
r veterinarian for vaccination information and vaccine purchases, but
administered the vaccine to the cattle themselves. Many producers did
not vaccinate all susceptible groups of cattle in their herd, Also, ma
ny producers did nor administer a booster vaccination after administra
tion of an initial killed-virus vaccine, as recommended by vaccine man
ufacturers. As a result, although 309 or 376 (82.2%) dairy producers i
ndicated that they routinely vaccinated their herds, only 73 of 266 (2
7.4%) herds were considered adequately vaccinated, Veterinarians were
as likely To administer vaccines to cattle in adequately vaccinated he
rds as to cattle in inadequately vaccinated herds. Adequately vaccinat
ed herds were more likely to be larger herds (> 121 cattle) than small
er herds. Analysis of survey results indicated that veterinarians are
not laking full advantage of their pivotal role in dairy herd vaccinat
ion programs.