Beware of pinkeye.
Dry, windy dusty conditions are ideal for the onset of Pinkeye - a painful and extremely
unpleasant, highly contagious disease in cattle. Cattle of all ages are affected, but calves are
especially vulnerable.
Although most animals recover, serious cases can lead to permanent blindness. Pinkeye is
also economically important to cattle farmers as disease incurs significant costs, including:
 treatments costs
 disruptions to seasonal management of stock
 production losses through reduced growth rates in young animals, and losses of milk
production, weight gain, and mating performance in adult animals.
Pinkeye usually peaks in spring and summer when environmental conditions are just right strong sunlight, combined with anything that can irritate the eye (e.g: dry, dusty, windy
conditions; and mature, stalky vegetation). This allows the main cause - the bacteria
Moraxella bovis, to become established.
The first signs of disease are weepy eyes. Infected animals become light sensitive, and try to
avoid bright light and may appear to squint. Blood vessels appear as a red ring on the
surface of the eye, while infected animals may have creamy or opaque appearing eyes. As
the infection takes hold ulcers can develop.
Treatment
Once disease starts, it will spread rapidly. Outbreaks can be treated with antibiotics, but this
can be expensive, difficult and time consuming. It also requires yarding animals – increasing
the spread of disease within the herd.
You need to avoid Pinkeye, so a planned, preventative programme is vastly preferable.
Prevention by vaccination is simple
Piliguard® Pinkeye-1 Trivalent is a one-shot vaccine. It helps develop and maintain immunity
in cattle by generating antibodies against M. bovis preventing the bacteria attaching to the
eye.
Vaccination has a number of advantages over treatment:
 reduces the incidence and severity of disease, reducing individual animal suffering
and production losses
 disease is often well advanced before animals are treated and animals often don’t
respond well to treatment
 reduces the need for antibiotics and therefore reduces the risk of bacterial resistance
or residues
 can be administered at convenient times (e.g: drenching, calf marking) when animals
are being mustered
 reduces the need for yarding cattle in hot, dusty conditions to treat affected animals,
thus reducing risk of further spread of pinkeye
The time to vaccinate is 3 - 6 weeks before the onset of the Pinkeye season. Because
conditions and animal health requirements vary from farm to farm, we recommend you
contact us to discuss a management programme to prevent Pinkeye in your herd.
Prescription Animal remedy (PAR) Class I. For use only under the authority or prescription of a veterinarian.
Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No A8192. Contains inactivated cultures of Moraxella bovis. ®
Registered trademark. Schering-Plough Animal Health Limited, 33 Whakatiki Street, Upper Hutt. Phone 0800 800
543. PIL-317-2008