Agriculture Proud

BRD. Google results tell me this is Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Germany’s official name. But that’s about all I know in German history. BRD in my life actually stands for Bovine Respiratory Disease. On this week’s episode of the Agriculture Proud podcast, I catch up with Dr. Jim Little, a technical services veterinarian with Bayer Animal Health to discuss more about this disease – BRD, which has more than a $1 billion impact annually on the cattle business. This disease may commonly affect cattle considered “high-risk” stemming from factors of “commingling with other animals, transportation stress, immune status, nutritional condition, environment conditions, and the skill level of management to diagnose cattle displaying symptoms of BRD” (Richeson, 2008). BRD does have a major impact on health, efficiency, and performance of stocker and feeder calves. According to research from Snowder et al. (2006), BRD has a large impact on both stocker and feeder calves, with 13% and 17%, respectively, of calves bein