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November 05, 2020

Phytogenics: Improving calves’ resilience to diseases

by Delphine Lacombe, Customer Technical Service Manager Ruminant, Delacon, Austria

Calves have to undertake a difficult path from birth onwards: during their growth, they have to overcome challenges in terms of feeding transitions, housing and, of course, pathogenic pressure. Next to a good calf management programme, phytogenic feed additives can additionally support animals during challenging times.

Aside from their obvious and direct cost, like treatments and extra work, diseases have a great impact on calf growth and future performance. Indeed, because of the energy spent in fighting disease and recovery, the growth performance of an animal  can be reduced. A direct correlation between the average daily gain (ADG) before weaning and the later milk production of the primiparous cow has been demonstrated by Soberon and Van Amburgh (2013): for every extra 1kg of preweaning ADG, first lactation milk yield is increased by 1,550kg. Reducing the incidence of sickness would, then, have a positive effect on the future cows’ performance.
 


It has also been demonstrated that calves having suffered from diseases are more susceptible than “healthy” ones to other outbreaks. Calves affected by diseases are not necessarily bound to die, but they can become a reservoir for the pathogens to spread to other animals. This is why it is important not only to consider the mortality rate of a given disease, but also its morbidity rate, which can influence the rearing cost of the animals.

In this article, we will focus on the main diseases and related pathogens that can affect calves in the early life stages and provide some tips in order to reduce their incidence in the heard.

Why are calves so susceptible to diseases?
Calves are quite prone to diseases as they are young animals with a non-mature immune system, undergoing different challenges such as separation from the dam, changes in housing and grouping, weaning and feed transitions, physiological evolution etc... All these challenges are sources of stress, which, in addition to pathogens from the environment and possible management mistakes, can lead to sickness.

Out of the different conditions that can afflict calves, two are quite recurrent in farms and can affect a wide range of animals: gut related diseases (diarrhoea) and bovine respiratory disease (BRD). They have various possible causes, as pathogenic agents can take hold at different stages in the calf’s life. Usually, diarrhoea occurs earlier and is the main cause of death, whereas BRD is observed later on and constitute the second biggest threat to a calves’ life.


Read more HERE.
 

The Global Miller
This blog is maintained by The Global Miller staff and is supported by the magazine Milling and Grain
which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.

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