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.

Total protein content was measured as an indicator of serum IgG concentrations and the adequacy of colostrum feeding. The serum TP results showed that the MEL-and PLA-treated calves did not differ for immunocompetence; however, the results also indicated that overall colostrum management could have been improved. Serum TP is commonly used to assess passive transfer status in calves (Calloway et al., 2002) . A test value of less than 5.2 g/dL was applied to identify calves with failure of passive transfer (FPT), and it was determined that 77% of the calves had FPT. The risk of FPT in this study was greater than that found in many other populations of calves (Besser et al., 1991; Filteau et al., 2003; Trotz-Williams et al., 2008a; Beam et al., 2009 ). Nevertheless, the increased FPT reported in this study is comparable with the immunocompetence status of calves in commercial veal facilities (Stull and McDonough, 1994) . It is recognized in the literature that decreased serum TP is a significant risk factor for morbidity and mortality in young calves (Paré et al., 1993; Donovan et al., 1998) . Thus, the increased incidence of calf diarrhea in this study may have partially resulted from calves not receiving enough good-quality colostrum in a timely manner after birth.