Calves are your herd's future so keeping them in the best health possible should be at the top of your list.
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A scours outbreak can be time consuming, expensive to treat and, if not managed correctly, can result in significant losses.
It's difficult to control the disease once calves start to scour and become sick.
Therefore, it's important to manage calving herds to avoid outbreaks.
Calf scours is most common in beef calves during the first six weeks of life.
Scours is caused by an interaction between the environment, the health of the calf and the presence of disease-causing agents (pathogens), which include bacteria, viruses and protozoa.
These pathogens are shed in low, but increased numbers in the manure of cows around the time of calving, and in much greater numbers in the manure of scouring calves and unaffected calves up to six months of age.
To reduce the risk of calf scours in your herd you should:
- Minimise contact between young calves and potential sources of infection by avoiding wet, muddy areas or areas with manure build up.
- Maximise colostrum intake by avoiding calving difficulty (dystocia) and poor early bonding. Calves from heifers are most at risk. Any calf that hasn't suckled within six hours of birth should be supplemented with colostrum.
- Avoid stress, poor nutrition and crowding.
- Avoid the introduction of new calf scour pathogens into the herd by not replacing dead calves with bobby calves from another property and not introducing recently purchased animals into the calving herd.
During a scours outbreak, a rapid build-up of pathogens can occur in the environment.
While the pathogen's actions vary, their effects are consistent - a loss of fluid and electrolytes associated with diarrhoea leading to dehydration, weakness, and in some cases the death of the calf.
Basic control measures should be applied quickly when scouring calves require treatment as the disease can spread rapidly if pathogen build-up is not addressed.
It's imperative to move all pregnant cows to a new calving paddock and don't put any new calves with affected cows and calves.
To successfully treat a scouring calf, supportive therapy is needed to counteract the effects of diarrhoea.
The most important aspect of supportive therapy is to give an adequate quantity of fluids and electrolytes to replace what is lost in the diarrhoea.
The use of antibiotics may be appropriate but only under veterinary advice.
A key to the success of treatment is to commence it promptly.
It's vital to start treatment at the very first indication of adverse clinical signs.
If these steps are followed I would hope that you will experience a trouble-free calving season.
For further advice on this or other animal health related issues please contact your local veterinarian or Agriculture Victoria veterinary or animal health officer, or in NSW your Local Land Services.
There is also animal health information on the Agriculture Victoria website, http://agriculture.vic.gov.au/
Dr Jeff Cave is a district veterinary officer with Agriculture Victoria.
