Denis, who runs a suckler to beef enterprise, began using Bovilis Cryptium earlier this year due to the pressures of cryptosporidiosis his herd had experienced over the years.

“We’ve certainly had our share of disease problems and I’ve always been aware of the need to take action when it comes to protecting the cows’ immune system,” said Denis.

“This involved the cows receiving the required levels of minerals, along with administering certain boluses at certain stages. And up to this year, when we were calving cows, every calf had to be treated with an oral drench to prevent cryptosporidiosis for a week after calving.”

He continued: “If I hadn’t administered the oral drench to prevent cryptosporidiosis for those seven days post-calving, I was likely to lose a few calves due to crypto scour, which for me is probably the worst scour you have to deal with as a farmer.

"But the lack of thrive due to the scour, coupled with the level of work and money involved in doing things that way, no longer made any sense to me.

"With that in mind, and given how busy calving tends to be, I made no hesitation in using the new crypto vaccine when it became available.”

Cryptosporidiosis is among the most common causes of neonatal calf diarrhoea, which is the predominant cause of death in calves less than one month of age.

This in turn increases the farmer’s workload, given the additional disease management measures required in the event of an outbreak.

Padraig Duggan of Killenaule Vets, who has worked with Denis for many years, recommended the use of Bovilis Cryptium.

“Crypto, given how long-standing an issue it had proven for Denis, was, in essence, endemic on the farm, despite him being so thorough on a daily basis,” he said.

“As soon as Bovilis Cryptium was introduced to the market, I felt it would be a good fit for Denis, as it was going to make life a lot easier from a management perspective.

"Given the big, strong beef cows Denis has, they’re quite challenging to handle when he has a large number of cows calving at the same time - and he was also busy trying to separate out the calves to administer an oral drench to prevent cryptosporidiosis. So anything that was going to make life easier for Denis was worth trying. To that end, Bovilis Cryptium has proven a massive success.”

Denis Large added: “Bovilis Cryptium is so easy to use and has made the job so much safer for me. I could administer the second shot of Bovilis Cryptium at the same time as Bovilis Rotavec Corona.

"Granted, two doses of Bovilis Cryptium are required the first year that it’s used, so that required a good deal of planning with Padraig, taking all the other vaccinations we administer over the year into account, but that’s all in place now, thankfully.”

Denis concluded: “At the moment, we have 134 cows and 139 live calves on the ground. Our calving window runs from August through to November and I’m very pleased with how autumn calving has gone for us. This busy time of year has been made a lot smoother and safer - thanks to Bovilis Cryptium.”

The management of calf scour on farm requires a multifactorial approach, with adequate hygiene, nutrition and husbandry being essential in reducing the risk of disease.

Speak to your veterinary practitioner for advice on what vaccination and therapeutic options will help provide the best results on your farm.