Abstract
Neonatal calf diarrhoea remains the most common cause of morbidity and mortality in preweaned dairy calves worldwide. This complex disease can be triggered by both infectious and non-infectious causes. The four most important enteropathogens leading to neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea are Escherichia coli, rota- and coronavirus, and Cryptosporidium parvum. Besides treating diarrhoeic neonatal dairy calves, the veterinarian is the most obvious person to advise the dairy farmer on prevention and treatment of this disease. This review deals with prevention and treatment of neonatal dairy calf diarrhoea focusing on the importance of a good colostrum management and a correct fluid therapy.
Highlights
Neonatal calf diarrhoea (NCD), defined in this paper as diarrhoea in calves aged 1-month-old or younger is a complex disease that can be triggered by both infectious and non-infectious causes
Enterotoxic Escherichia coli K99/F5, rota- and coronavirus, and Cryptosporidium spp. (≥85% C. parvum) are the 4 most important enteropathogens causing NCD worldwide with rotavirus and C. parvum most frequently identified in faecal samples from young calves [2,4,5,6,7]
Colostrum management the importance of a good colostrum management leading to an adequate passive transfer is undebatable in the prevention of NCD [17,31,32,33], there are studies showing no significant effect of colostrum feeding routines on the risk of diarrhoea or on the risk of shedding C. parvum [4,6]
Summary
Neonatal calf diarrhoea (NCD), defined in this paper as diarrhoea in calves aged 1-month-old or younger is a complex disease that can be triggered by both infectious and non-infectious causes. Colostrum management the importance of a good colostrum management leading to an adequate passive transfer is undebatable in the prevention of NCD [17,31,32,33], there are studies showing no significant effect of colostrum feeding routines on the risk of diarrhoea or on the risk of shedding C. parvum [4,6] This lack of a significant effect can be explained by a high number of diarrhoea cases caused by C. parvum, for which colostral IgG is less protective [6]. Because of the difference in administered volume (4 L versus 2 L) between the two methods (oesophageal intubation versus bottle-fed), it can only be concluded from this study that an appropriate use of an oesophageal tube to feed 4 L colostrum is a safe and reliable method for an adequate passive immune transfer in healthy newborn calves. The herd veterinarian should focus on the prevention of NCD
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