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Healthier cows with fewer cases of mastitis, metritis, and respiratory disease
Lower vet and treatment costs
Improved fertility and longevity, keeping cows in your herd longer
More profit, with gains that build every generation
By monitoring immunity in your herd, you’re not just treating disease — you’re preventing it.
BOVINE TUBERCULOSIS
Immunity+® & Bovine Tuberculosis (bTB)
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a chronic infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium bovis, with major economic consequences for affected dairy farms — even in countries where it’s rare. Costs can be extremely high due to culling, testing, movement restrictions, and trade losses.
Estimated Cost of Bovine TB to a Dairy If Reactor Found:
$2,000 to over $25,000+ per year, depending on:
- Number of reactors
- Testing frequency
- Culling and compensation policy
- Farm size and restrictions
For an individual infected cow:- $1,500 to $3,500 economic impact per cow culled:
- Includes lost milk production, cull value loss, delayed replacement, and disruption to herd structure.
How Immunity+ helps fight Bovine TB:
- Improved Cell-Mediated Immunity+ (CMI)
- bTB is primarily controlled by cell-mediated Immunity+ (T-cells)
- Cows with the Immunity+ trait tend to have stronger CMI responses
- This means:
- Better recognition and destruction of infected cells
- Lower bacterial replication and spread
- Reduced disease progression
- In research, HIR animals have shown stronger T-cell responses, which are critical in managing diseases like bTB.
- Greater Vaccine Response Potential
- While there is no widely used bTB vaccine for cattle (due to diagnostic interference), HIR animals generally show better responses to vaccines.
- This suggests that if a bTB vaccine becomes viable, Immunity+ animals would be more likely to mount a protective response.
- Reduced Disease Burden & Transmission Risk
- Even if exposed to M. bovis, Immunity+ cattle may:
- Clear the infection more efficiently
- Remain asymptomatic for longer
- Be less likely to transmit the disease to others
- This helps lower herd prevalence over time, particularly when combined with testing and culling programs.
Summary: Semex’s Immunity+ is not a cure or vaccine for bovine tuberculosis, but it’s a proactive, genetic defense strategy. By breeding cattle with superior immune responses — especially in the area of cell-mediated Immunity+ — you're building a herd better equipped to resist and contain bTB and other major diseases.
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