Passive immunity to Pasteurella haemolytica A1 in dairy calves: effects of preparturient vaccination of the dams.

Dairy cows from five herds were assigned to receive a commercial Pasteurella haemolytica vaccine or no vaccine at all, administered at six and three weeks before parturition. Vaccination was associated with increased leukotoxin neutralizing serum antibody titers in the dams (p < 0.001), and with increased titers in colostrum (p < 0.001). Vaccination of dams also had a significant association with increased passive leukotoxin neutralizing antibody titers in their calves (p < 0.001). Vaccination was also associated with increased indirect agglutinating antibody titers in serum of the dams (p < 0.001). In the analysis of agglutinating antibody titers in colostral whey the interaction "vaccination*herd" was found to be significant (p < 0.001), indicating that the effects of vaccination on colostral titers were not consistent from herd to herd. The analysis was repeated, stratifying by herd. Vaccination was associated with increased agglutinating antibody titers in colostrum (p < 0.05) in three herds of the five in the study. In two of these three herds there were significant increases in passive neonatal titers associated with vaccination. In the remaining herd the mean IgG1 level in the calves was consistent with failure of passive transfer of immunoglobulins (IgG1 < 8.0 g/L). These results suggest that preparturient vaccination of dairy cows can induce modest increases in passive antibody titers to antigens of Pasteurella haemolytica in their calves, but the antigen of interest and the population being studied can affect the outcome.