Steve Wikse, a retired professor of large-animal clinical sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine at Texas A&M University, answers this month's beef cattle health question.

Q -- I am interested in seeing if the vaccination program I use on my cattle can be improved.

Presently I vaccinate as follows:

My cows receive Vira-Shield 6 + VL5, Vitamin E-AD and Ivomec Plus injection.

My calves receive Vision 8 Somnus. Also, what do you think about Vira-Shield 6 + L5HB for my calves?

I do not know what vaccines to use for the bulls. I deworm them and this is about all I do. I do use protein tubs with fly protection in it. I have been told they can get lepto.

I run about 30 plus cows, 24 plus calves and two bulls. I keep back about four heifers each year. Many thanks for your input.

A -- I can tell you are a conscientious cattleman because you are doing some good things with your herd health program and you are interested in seeing if it can be improved. I like that you are vaccinating for many important infectious diseases, that you have an internal parasite control program and that you feed a protein supplement that contains fly control chemicals.

You probably are selling 20 pounds or more per weaned calf due to fly control.

When I was wet behind the ears, I worked for a veterinarian who loved to say: "The room for improvement is the biggest room in the place."

I think he was right.

Below are some steps you can take that I feel can improve your herd health program.

First, be sure you have a salt/trace mineral mixture available to your cattle at all times. It should be formulated to correct mineral deficiencies in our region of Texas. Providing cattle with proper minerals will help them develop a strong immune response to vaccination.

Here are some tips for improving your vaccination program for cows, bulls and calves.

J Cows

1. Vira-Shield 6 + VL5 is a good killed-virus, plus vibrio/lepto 5.

There are two considerations for improvement:

a. Killed-virus vaccines must be given twice a year to provide adequate protection.

b. It would be better to use Vira-Shield 6+L5HB. The HB stands for Leptospira hardjo -bovis, which causes reproductive losses in cattle. The risk of this disease is quite high. A survey of Texas ranches found 50 percent of beef herds infected with Leptospira hardjo-bovis.

2. Consider vaccinating cows once a year (spring) with an 8-way clostridial vaccine. This is mainly to prevent sudden deaths of cows from redwater (Clostridium hemolyticum infection), which is a risk where bovine liver flukes are present.

J Bulls

1. Give bulls the same set of vaccines you give cows. Bulls get lepto, which can be fatal, caused by Leptospira pomona infection. Leptospira pomona is in Lepto 5 vaccines.

2. Most leptospiral vaccines, like killed-virus vaccines, must be given every six months to provide adequate protection.

J Calves

1. Vira-Shield 6+L5HB would be good for your calves.

a. The foundation of a successful herd vaccination program is to develop strong immunity to the important infectious diseases in calves. Start them out with this vaccine when they are three to four months old. Booster the vaccine two to three weeks later, at weaning and when they are yearling heifers. You can give Vision 8 Somnus then too. Boosters and timing of boosters are very important for vaccines to provide protection, especially killed-virus vaccines.

2. Deworm your calves at several months, at weaning and when they are yearling heifers. They can be treated with straight Ivomec unless liver flukes are a severe problem on your ranch.

The Plus in Ivomec Plus is corsulon, which kills liver flukes.

I hope these few tips help improve the health of your cattle. They don't cover the numerous details of beef herd vaccination programs because of the short space of this column. Many more vaccines are available at the stockman's supply.

I'm not familiar enough with your ranch to know if any of them would be of benefit to your herd or just an unnecessary expense.

Your local veterinarian knows the common diseases of cattle in your area. He or she is the most qualified person to give you advice on your herd vaccination program.

The 55th Annual Texas A&M Beef Cattle Short Course will be held at College Station the first week of August. It is arguably the best educational meeting for beef producers in the country.

One of the scheduled presentations is titled "Establishing Herd Immunity." The faculty members making that presentation are exceptionally experienced, practical and knowledgeable.

I'm sure their information would be a tremendous help to you in your herd vaccination decisions. Hope to see you there.

E-mail Ask the Vet questions to beverly.moseley@

theeagle.com.

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