Immune Ready - the next big market signal for cattle selling

It has been touted as the most significant animal health initiative in the Australian beef game in decades and it's as simple as vaccinating livestock according to the guidelines to secure the logo, then providing a National Cattle Health Declaration to verify the animal's status.

Put together by the Australian Cattle Veterinarians, with industry backing from the likes of Animal Health Australia, Meat & Livestock Australia and peak representative bodies, the initiative draws on a suite of important vaccines produced by all three Australian cattle vaccine manufacturers - Coopers, Virbac and Zoetis.

Dr Matt Peterson, veterinary operations manager of livestock at Zoetis, said the program protected cattle in the preparation and transport phase and arrival post-sale; and it had massive benefits for both buyers and sellers.

Speaking at the 2023 Angus National Conference, he said it was the optimal strategy to leverage investment in genomic testing.

In a nutshell, the objective of the project - three years in the making - was to maximise productivity and minimise the transfer of disease through the supply chain, he said.

Tens of thousands of cattle transfers happen across the country on any given day and that creates big opportunity for the spread of disease.

On top of that, only 48 per cent of beef producers quarantine and only 30pc drench or dip - a particularly concerning figure given the now widespread resistance to macrocyclic lactones like Ivermectin.

Only 16pc vaccinate on arrival and only 10pc of National Vendor Declarations are accompanied by a National Cattle Health Declaration.

"We have the tools, we're just not using them," Dr Peterson said.

"At the core of the problem is low levels of risk management in trade markets that creates opportunity for animal health issues and transfer of diseases between farms."

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There are 13 diseases covered in the program - clostridial, leptospirosis, pestivirus, vibrio, manneheimia haemolytica, infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, Johne's, botulism, calf scours, salmonella, pinkeye, bovine ephemeral fever and tick fever.

Collectively, they take a massive toll on the beef industry's productivity.

The vaccination recommendations aligned with the intended use of the cattle, Dr Peterson explained.

"It's a different disease profile we are trying to prevent for breeding cattle versus the terminal trade," he said.

"So we segmented it into breeding bulls and breeding females and then steers/non-breeding bulls and females."

Dairy breeding females also have a segment.

Then a 'traffic light' style system for vaccination recommendations is applied - some being mandatory to comply with the program and others recommended.

These include green for core vaccines, orange for important diseases in certain areas or production systems; brown for important diseases in certain regions or seasons and red for unnecessary for a particular class of stock.

Information about the cause, spread and clinical signs of the infectious diseases are provided in the guidelines, along with vaccination handling guides and before and after care of animals.

For buyers, Dr Peterson said the guidelines allowed easy assessment of the vaccination status prior to purchase and required future actions. By buying Immune Ready stock, buyers can offset many of the inherent disease risks that come with introducing new cattle on farm.

For sellers, cattle can be recognised for being healthy, productive and adequately prepared for sale - with the logo used as a market signal.

For the guidelines, visit the Immune Ready website.