The Key to Calf Health

Veterinarian View

by Vince Collison, Collison Embryo | Collison Veterinary Services, Rockwell City, IA collisonembryo.com

Health & Reproduction questions - answered and explained.

THE KEY TO CALF HEALTH

s we start the spring calving season, one of the most common issues we deal with is newborn calf sickness. The most important thing to remember is that colostrum intake at birth is the key to calf health. Calves that do not take in enough colostrum at birth not only can be more prone to neonatal calf disease, they likely will have more problems with illness later in life and probably will be less likely to perform to their genetic potential. As a rule of thumb, if a calf does not nurse within 2 hours of birth it should be bottle fed or tubed with colostrum at that time. Use colostrum milked from the cow or there are some very good commercial replacer products available. If you use a commercial replacement A

product, try to get 200 grams of IgG into the calf for total replacement. If a producer gives about 100 grams at 2 hours after birth, plan on giving another 100 grams of IgG by 6-8 hours of age if the calf has not gotten up to nurse by then. Also, the earlier the colostrum is given, the better the results. The normal guideline is that colostrum should be given in the first 24 hours, but in reality it needs to be consumed before 12 hours of age to receive the most benefit. Just figure the gut is the most open to receiving antibodies from colostrum at birth and will be shut down from adsorbing antibodies by 12 hours after birth.

With these guidelines, it is a literal race against time to get the calf to consume colostrum and should be given the highest priority. When calves fail to consume enough colostrum, it is called “Failure of Passive Transfer”. If a producer has had to treat a lot of calves in the past or is currently treating a lot of newborns, it is best to review procedures in the calving barn to make sure calves are nursing soon enough and often. One thing I feel is very important, is to get the cow and calf paired up quickly. If they are calving in a large group, ideally they could be penned off where they can pair up and bond for the first 12-24 hours. This gives the calf plenty of opportunity to nurse as often as it wants. If you move pairs too soon or too often, it can result in the calf not nursing as much as it needs to. If you suspect you have calves not nursing enough colostrum, there are blood tests that can measure the antibody levels in the calf. Testing a batch of calves 18-48 hours after birth would be a good way to monitor how well the herd is doing for colostrum intake. This is something your veterinarian can help you with and can give

some good information to base decisions on.

The other thing to keep in mind is that when things are perfect, a calf is only adsorbing about 40% of the antibodies in the colostrum. If a calf is stressed, it will reduce the adsorption to 10- 20% of the antibodies. This can even lead to failure of passive transfer on calves we think have consumed enough colostrum. Probably one of the most common stresses is chilling. If calves are chilled, get them warmed up before giving colostrum to increase the adsorption rate. Also dystocia can be a traumatic stress. The other thing that can cause reduced adsorption is oral contamination with fecal material. Knowing this makes sanitation in the calving area even more important. While these are common sense ideas, it is easy to underestimate the long term effects of reduced colostrum adsorption. All of these situations make early colostrum intake essential to saving these calves. The other thing to keep in mind is that colostrum is full of sugars that help to feed and establish the proper type of microflora in the calf’s GI tract. The proper microflora is a large part of the calf’s immunity, and if it is out of balance, can make the calf more prone to various GI infections. The other benefit is the local immunity that colostrum will provide as the gut is bathed in antibodies for various infectious agents.

If a commercial replacement is used we like to use a products made from actual colostrum. It is hard

to duplicate everything that real colostrum already does so well. All the immunoglobulins, fats, and sugars play a role in getting the calf off to the best start for long term health.

As a final thought, all the pre-calving scour prevention vaccinations work by building antibodies in the cow’s colostrum. The only way they benefit the calf is through the colostrum they ingest. If you think any of these ideas are part of your newborn calf problems, work with your local veterinarian to review post-calving procedures and possibly test calves for IgG levels to develop a baseline of what is going on in the herd.

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Dr. Vince Collison is co-owner of Collison Embryo | Collison Veterinary Services PC in Rockwell City, IA.

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