Pneumonia is a disease that vets always refer to as multi-factorial. This simply means that there is no one factor behind it - sometimes it is related to mixing of animals, other times poor housing conditions,perhaps it is down to a particularly high challenge by one of the main bugs,or it can be related to lower than average immunity amongst calves. This all means that it is hard to predict how big or small the threat may be in any one year.
Half of all deaths from pneumonia occur in calves under three months of age. What's more, the causes of the disease are viral and bacterial, meaning that waiting for an outbreak to occur and then treating it with antibiotics is not always effective and can be an expensive exercise. The main viruses involved in calf pneumonia are RSV,PI3 and IBR.A number of different bacteria are also capable of causing pneumonia,either on their own or after viruses have already caused some damage. Of these Mannheimia (Pasteurella) haemolytica is particularly significant in the young calf.

* Pasteurella and RSV are the main threats in younger calves
* IBR tends to affect slightly older animals
* PI3 is commonly involved as a cause of pneumonia in calves at any age



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