Impact of prepartum administration of a vaccine against infectious calf diarrhea on nonspecific colostral immunoglobulin concentrations of dairy cows.

Passive transfer of colostral immunoglobulins from the cow to the calf is essential for calf health. The objective of this study was to determine if prepartum administration of a vaccine stimulates increased concentrations of colostral immunoglobulins of dairy cows beyond what is explained by vaccine-specific immunoglobulins. A prospective cohort study was conducted on a spring-calving commercial dairy farm that had a policy of only vaccinating cows with even ear tag numbers with a calf diarrhea vaccine, whereas cows with odd ear tag numbers were left unvaccinated.

Perinatal mortality risk factors in dairy calves.

Dairy calf mortality is an area of interest worldwide as animal welfare continues to increase in importance to the consumer. Perinatal mortality, defined as death of a full term calf either during parturition or shortly after (up to 48 h), is a major component of overall calf mortality with estimates of losses in large scale multi-farm studies suggesting that 2.4-9.

Estimation of perinatal mortality in dairy calves: A review.

Dairy calf mortality is of interest worldwide as animal welfare continues to increase in importance to the consumer. This review summarises overall estimations of perinatal mortality from published literature, then further explores the limitations of each publication as well as its applicability, and challenges faced in use of the generated data for comparisons. The first limitation is the definition of perinatal mortality.