A cross industry collaboration to improve vaccination uptake and biosecurity on farm is gaining traction and support across the cattle industry and has resulted in the unique program, Immune Ready.

The program ultimately creates a vaccination guideline for different classes of cattle across  Australian trade markets and is based around existing framework from established vaccination guidelines in the US and UK.

Australian Cattle Vets (ACV) bought together veterinarians from cattle production systems including dairy, beef, feedlots and live export, along with academia and pharmaceutical  representatives with the ultimate goal to establish the program and define the key criteria for core vaccines and risk-based vaccinations.

The Outcome 

A commitment from the Australian Veterinary Association (AVA), the Australian Cattle Vets (ACV), key industry bodies Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA), Animal Health Australia (AHA), Cattle Council of Australia (CCA), Dairy Australia (DA) and Australian Lot Feeders Association (ALFA), as well as the key animal health companies: Zoetis, Coopers and Virbac, is to adopt and promote adherence to the National Cattle Health Declaration (NCHD) and these guidelines.

Additionally, the commitment addresses: 

• new emerging diseases 
• existing diseases posing a greater threat or geographic distribution changes 
• the virulence of an endemic disease changes 
• new and emerging technologies develop that enable a higher level of diagnosis and  or prevention and treatment of the disease.    

The Immune Ready Guidelines are underpinned by the NCHD and are a way for producers to provide information about the health and vaccination status of cattle they are selling. 

Buyers can use the information in the declaration to determine any health risks associated with the animals on offer.  

When sellers utilise the Immune Ready Guidelines logo, they agree to provide the NCHD verifying the health status of the animals advertised.  

The Immune Ready guidelines provide a great opportunity for stores to discuss biosecurity, along with quarantine and induction processes on farm, improve productivity and mitigate against animal health challenges when buying and selling cattle. 

They provide a framework for producers to lower the risk of developing disease, leading to a more productive, profitable, and vibrant cattle industry in the future.  

The ACV encourages the industry to continue to support and communicate the benefits of the Immune Ready Guidelines.