EVALUATION OF THE RESULTS OF A SURVEY OF DAIRY PRODUCERS ON DAIRY-HERD BIOSECURITY AND VACCINATION AGAINST BOVINE VIRAL DIARRHEA

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.