Neonatal Calf & Colostrum Management Flashcards
what is failure of passive transfer (FPT)
Calf born in immunocompromised state
how much IgG do calves need to develop passive immunity
Needs to ingest quality colostrum >50mg/ml IgG (50 g/L IgG) to develop passive immunity
what are FPT calves more prone to
Calves with FPT have high morbidity and mortality rates and poorer reproductive and productive performance
why is FPT a problem for farmers in the short term
more death
sickness
why is FPT a problem for farmers in the long term
production effects (growth + milk production)
animal welfare
what are scenarios where FPT can occur
Cows not getting to their feet (nerve damage, low calcium)
Calves weak (dystocia, twins)
Poor quality (nutrition, lack of vaccines)
Not enough produced (running milk, beef)
High yielding cows (dilution)
- More than 8L of colostrum
Mis-mothering (heifers, c-section)
why is colostrum important
Immediate humoral immunity (ex. antibodies)
Local intestinal immunity
Energy
describe the timeline of active and passive immunity in the calf
what are the 3 qs to colostrum management
- quickly
- quantity
- quality
how many grams of IgG per week are produced in the calf
1g IgG/week
why is it important to get colostrum in quickly
New born calf gut permeable to large IgG molecules
At 24 hours old, calf gut ‘closes’ and becomes impermeable to large IgG molecules
Ability to absorb starts to decline
Decline in colostrum antibodies after calving in the udder
how much colostrum does a calf need
10-15% of its bodyweight within the first 6-12 hours of life
how much colostrum would a 100 pound beef calf need
5-6% BW = 5-6L
how much colostrum would a 65 pound dariy calf need
3-4.5L
how quickly should colostrum be given
before 12 hours
what is “good” colostrum
1st milking colostrum
everything else is transition milk
lots of IgG
not contaminated with lots of bacteria
what are the 2 main measures of quality
- high antibody
- low bacteria
how many g/L of IgG should there be
50g/L (>10g/L IgG in serum)
how much bacteria and coliforms can be present
<100,000 cfu/ml total plate count
and <10,000 cfu/ml coliforms
how do you measure FPT in calves (5)
- TP
- Brix
- Radial immunodiffusion (RID)
- Gamma glutamyl transferase (GGT)
- Zinc sulphate turbidity (ZST)
what is the gold standard to measure FPT
RID
what is the problem with using ZST to measure FPT
Lacks specificity
expensive
how do you measure colostrum quality
- colostrometer
- RID
- brix
why does bacteria contamination matter in colostrum
Bind to IgG molecules and can make them too large to pass through the enterocytes
Block the enterocytes and not allow IgG to be absorbed
Increase the rate that the enterocytes close
when does bacteria contamination of colostrum occur
Warm ambient temperature most rapidly increase bacteria counts
Bacteria contamination of colostrum occurs at harvest, and during storage and feeding
how can we improve colostrum (6)
- first milking only
- time calving to first milking (time in udder)
- time calving to first feed (time in bucket)
- time collection to first feed (age at first feed)
- selection colostrum ‘donor’ cows
- pasteurization
what cow factors influence colostrum quality (10)
- age
- breed
- volume of colostrum
- season
- nutrition pre calving
- vaccination
- pooling
- dry period length
- mastitis/sickness
- delayed collection
what disease and bacteria can colostrum spread
johne’s
salmonella
e. coli
mycoplasma
how do you pasteurize colostrum
60C for 30-60 mins
operator problems
what if the calfs dam colostrum is not available (4)
- fresh colostrum from another cow from same farm (fridge within 1 hour, lasts 7 days)
- frozen colostrum from another cow from same farm (lasts 12 months, defrost slowly)
- artificial colostrum (supplement vs replacer)
- colostrum from another farm? (disease)
