by A.J. Tarpoff, DVM, MS, Beef Extension Veterinarian
Neonatal calf scours (diarrhea) is a multifactorial issue. Regardless of the pathogen(s) involved, there are some basic management strategies to reduce the risk of developing an outbreak. Four key areas to concentrate on are biosecurity, supporting proper immune function, environmental management, and hygiene.
Biosecurity
It is imperative to not inadvertently introduce disease into an operation. But it is something that is often overlooked. If a new calf or cow from outside the herd is introduced during or around calving season (30 days before/30 days after), ensure that those individuals are quarantined and separated from the rest of the herd. This often happens when we graft a sale barn calf onto a cow that lost its calf, or purchase a milk cow to nurse an orphan. Any animals from outside your herd can introduce this devastating disease to your operation.
Sick animals (especially scouring calves) can shed enormous amounts of pathogens into the environment. Isolating these animals and eliminating any mingling of infirmed animals and newborns will greatly reduce the exposure risk to new born calves.
Immune Function
Calf hood immune protection all starts with the first critical meal known as colostrum. Ensuring adequate intake and suckling behavior of the freshly born calf is important. Intake within the first few hours of life will increase the efficiency of colostrum antibody transfer into the calf. But colostrum quality all stems back to care of the cow. Previous research has shown proper nutritional supplementation to maintain Body Condition Score (BCS) will help increase both colostrum quality and quantity in the dam. Vaccination status of the dam can also play a critical role in calf health. Boosting immune function will transfer a higher level of antibody to those pathogens into the colostrum.
Environment
The solution to pollution is dilution! Reducing the environmental contamination of pathogens that new born calves are exposed to is a great way to reduce the risk of scours. These pathogens build up in the environment where cattle are housed for extended periods of time. An excellent program to reduce the contamination and risk of the disease is the Sandhills Calving System. The principles behind this system are 2-fold. First, calves born earlier in the calving season are exposed to smaller amounts of pathogens. Because of this, they typically do not break with disease. However, they do act as disease amplifiers. They will shed pathogens at a much higher rate., Separating calves by age group decreases the risk of exposure due to environmental contamination. Second, is limiting accumulation of pathogens on the calving ground, by calving in a “clean” area. These principles are put into practice by calving in 1 pasture or paddock for about 2 weeks. Then moving still pregnant cows to a new calving area to calve for another 2 weeks, leaving the cow/calf pairs in the first pasture. Continue until the youngest calf is a month of age, then the animals can be managed as one group again. The theory is sound, and in practice can work quite well. Unfortunately, many operations do not have the cross fencing, water access or space availability to manage this. But, any movement to break the disease cycle can make a major impact on the course of the disease. By understanding these principles of separation and minimizing contamination, several steps can be taken to mitigate the risk. Utilizing pregnancy check data, operations can split herds into calving groups to be managed in different pastures. This will decrease overall contamination in the pasture settings. Rotating feeding and resting areas throughout the pasture can also dilute the amount of contamination that newborn calves are exposed to. This may include utilizing portable windbreaks or shelters, rolling hay in different locations or moving hay feeders as the season progresses.
If a single calving area is utilized on the operation, strict management may be necessary to mitigate risk. Cows and newborn calves should be turned out into a “clean” pasture as soon as possible after birth. Ideally the pasture of choice should be filled with cows with calves of roughly the same age.
Barns and chute areas used to intervene during hard calving situations should also be kept clean. These areas also become contaminated through the season. Removing and replacing soiled bedding can reduce the pathogen load. After assisting births, cleaning teat ends of the cow will reduce the exposure of environmental pathogens during the calf’s first suckling opportunity.
Hygiene
Many scour pathogens can cause illness in people, this is known as Zoonosis. Personal hygiene is critical to ensure ranchers don’t succumb to the same diarrhea causing bugs as their calves. Washing hands, wearing gloves, and disinfecting equipment can all reduce the chance of sickness.
Hygiene is also critically important to avoid accidental infection of newborn calves through handling and management procedures. Esophageal tube feeders, nursing bottles, gloves, boots, and coveralls can all carry dangerous pathogens from a sick calf to a newborn calf. Use separate tube feeders and equipment for sick calves, and be sure to wash them thoroughly between animals. Work flow is another important concept to consider. Handle sick or infirmed calves after any healthy calves or newborns. This will ensure there it not cross contamination from clothing.