Lepto Hardjo
Transcript of Select Sires' Reproductive Moment Program
on DairyLine Radio Which Aired Sept.21, 2006
With Ray Nebel,
Senior Reproduction and Herd Management Specialist, Select Sires Inc.

Ray, this week we’re talking about a problem on the farm, and that’s lepto hardjo.

Yeah, Bill, most of our vaccination programs include a lepto vaccine vaccination program. A few years ago, it was shown that our vaccine, even though most of them have five lepto serio-types, it was not including lepto hardjo. Lepto hardjo was identified as a real menace or problem serio-type of lepto that we needed to add to our vaccination program.

Are you seeing this as a problem when you’re visiting these various farms?

It’s interesting, the indicator that we use, it’s really two. One is first-calf heifers should be getting pregnant faster than older cows. They haven’t had as many calvings, their reproductive tracts are cleaner, they’re usually in better condition when coming into the farm the first times If they’re lower, then that says that they’re coming into the farm and probably being exposed to a disease agent that was not exposed to when they were running as heifers. So that’s one indicator we use. The other one is if we have an increase in abortion, we really don’t see diarrhea that would be an indicator of bovine viral diarrhea, of any other board of agent, we suspect hardjo would be a problem. Now we can use laboratory tests to kind of confirm how big of a problem we may have.

You’re saying that these indicators are there even when you’re using the five-strain leptos.

Yes, that is correct. Like I said, most herds are vaccinated for the five strains of lepto, a five-way lepto, with vaccines are normally called.  But it didn’t include this serio-type this specific species of lepto. That’s the thing that most herders don’t understand while vaccinating for lepto for years. Well, it didn’t include the serio-types that we see now as very important; it is probably spread by wildlife. Deer would be one, and most of our farms are in rural areas so the deer population is probably a fairly great pressure as far as dairy is concerned. So what we’ve seen, in the last few years is that the lepto hardjo has become a species that’s very important to our dairy cattle.

So what can we do about this? What are some of the strategies to prevent this?

There’s more than one company that sells the lepto vaccine now. Initial one was Phizer Animal Health. There are others now, also. So I’d check with your veterinarian as far as what vaccines they recommend and to see if they have lepto hardjo serio-type coverage in that lepto vaccine. Now companies have integrated it into their normal lepto serio-types. So that would be the easiest thing. Make sure that if you’ve tested the animals and know there’s a specific lepto problem in the herd, then what you would want to do is probably start with the heifers, virgin heifers, and work your way up to the older cows. Knowing that probably every year a third of the older cows are going be cold out. Our turnover is going to occur in the herd. So probably most critical to vaccinate the springer that’s coming into the herd first and work through the milking herd.

Thank you, Ray. Ray Nebel, Select Sires’ Reproductive Solutions specialist.