Inzidenz und Verlauf von Neugeborenendurchfall bei Kälbern in einem Praxisgebiet in Oberbayern

This study has sought to establish the incidence and the course of
neonatal diarrhoea in calves under field conditions in 25 farms in
the area below the German Alps. At the same time, the actual
influence of the many non-infectious factors that had been
determined in clinical tests or were considered theoretically
possible as having a bearing on calves’ diarrhoea was to be
established and its importance assessed under real life rearing
conditions in the small rural farms. To this end, 205 calves up to
the age of 14 days from 25 farms were examined on a daily basis to
establish the presence of neonatal diarrhoea. At the same time,
non-infectious conditions were established and evaluated for each
calf. Calves that showed signs of neonatal diarrhoea were, in
addition, subjected to a brief daily clinical examination and the
consistency of their faeces were recorded. Incidence of diarrhoea
The incidence of diarrhoea amongst the 205 calves amounted to 47.8
%. It could be established that the most important influence on the
frequency of diarrhoea was the calves’ type of housing. Calves that
were held separately had less diarrhoea than the others. The
optimum solution in terms of diarrhoea prevention is the calf
hutch; only 17.2 % of calves thus kept contracted diarrhoea. The
provision of colostrum had no influence on the incidence of
diarrhoea. Neither the amount of colostrum milk nor when it was
drunk bore any relation to the incidence of diarrhoea. Neither did
the total protein and γGT values of the blood samples taken from
three-day-old calves show any relevance to the presence or lack of
diarrhoea. A higher risk of suffering from diarrhoea was incurred
only by calves in farms with many cattle, from farms practising
loose housing of cows as well as by calves from cows with above
average milk yield and twins. The course of the sickness The
mortality was 1.95 % and the lethality 4.1 %. On average, the
calves suffered 5.1 days from diarrhoea. The calves that
continuously showed signs of diarrhoea, i.e. on a daily basis,
suffered 3.2 days on average. On the other hand, calves that were
free of diarrhoea for one or two days during the sickness suffered
an average of 10.0 days. Calves housed in a calf hutch were sick
for a significantly shorter period of time than those housed in any
other way. All the other possible influences on the duration of the
diarrhoea that were examined, for example the supply of colostrum,
the course of the birth, the size of the farm or the γGT value in
the calf serum, were not markedly significant. The calves started
suffering from diarrhoea on average at the age of 6.1 days. The
youngest calf was one day old, the oldest 13 days. The calf was
least prone to accept nourishment on the first day of diarrhoea.
From the second day onwards, the calf showed signs of physical
deterioration, abnormal behaviour and dehydration.