Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug therapy for neonatal calf diarrhea complex: Effects on calf performance

Todd, C. G.; Millman, S. T.; McKnight, D. R.; Duffield, T. F.; Leslie, K. E.

The rate of BW gain after onset of diarrhea for the MEL-and PLA-treated calves was evaluated using a mixed model. The final multivariable model controlled for the effects of farm of origin, age at treatment, and time relative to diarrhea. No significant interaction between treatment and age at treatment or time was identified. A heterogeneous first-order autoregressive correlation structure was applied to account for the correlation between weekly BW measurements. Overall, MEL-treated calves gained BW at a faster rate than PLA-treated animals (P < 0.01; Table 2 ). Body weight gain was stratified by week, and the least squares means indicated that MEL-treated calves tended to gain more BW during wk 4 and wk 6 after the onset of diarrhea (P < 0.1 and P < 0.1; respectively, Table 2 ). Total BW gain during the study period was also regressed on MEL treatment. On average, calves receiving MEL gained an additional 4.3 kg of BW during the 8-wk study period, as compared with PLA-treated calves (32.4 and 27.1 kg, respectively; P < 0.01).