CAL ▶▶▶VES
Dairy calves need good passive immunity
For dairy heifer calves to have a healthy start in life and go on to have good lactation, they need to have a strong passive immunity system.
BY CHRIS MCCULLOUGH T
Lea Poppe, tech- nical manager with EW Nutri- tion in Germany, delved into recent insights and innovative solutions to aid young calves at this year’s EuroTier.
his basically means that calves must receive their mother’s colostrum as soon as possible after birth to kickstart the building of a strong immune system.
The neonatal immune system at birth is naïve to the wide variety and types of pathogens present in the environment. Consumption of colostrum to provide circulating Immuno- globulin G (IgG) prior to the cessation of macromole cular transport is essential to ensure healthy calves.
Factors influencing IgG absorption A tremendous number of factors may influence the absorp- tion of IgG by calves, so blanket recommendations for feed- ing a particular amount of colostrum to all calves may be inappropriate. Many colostrum supplement products are available on the market, but some of these provide little additional circulating IgG. Therefore, it is essential that producers carefully evaluate claims to improve circulating IgG and animal survival. During her presentation at the digital EuroTier exhibition, Lea
Poppe, technical manager with EW Nutrition in Germany, delved into recent insights and innovative solutions to aid young calves. Low passive immunity in calves creates a number of prob- lems, but essentially they can all lead to higher rearing costs for farmers. Poppe said: “Inadequate serum lg levels in calves can lead to a negative impact on growth rates of the calves in their first six months, as well as a higher number of antibiotic treat- ments due to higher morbidity and also higher mortality. “Together they lead to higher rearing costs, and research indi- cates that inadequate serum increased rearing costs for a dairy calf by € 60 and for a beef calf by € 90,” she said. “As well as this, the milk yield in the animal’s first lactation may be negatively affected by the low levels.”
Responses from the sector The team at EW Nutrition wanted to find out what the situa- tion was on dairy farms across the world and therefore sur- veyed 55 consultants and veterinarians from five countries, including Germany and the UK, in December 2020. Discussing the outcome, Poppe said: “It is worth highlighting that more than 54% of those surveyed think that the colos- trum quality is at a stable level. And 69% answered no to the question ‘Do you think calves are sufficiently supplied with immunoglobulins by the colostrum they receive?’ “And of all the experts we asked, 76% see a direct link be- tween early occurring diarrhoea and a lack of passive immunity,” she said. Scientific studies conducted in Munich also confirm the results of the survey. Only 41% of the calves in these studies conduct- ed in 2015 were sufficiently supplied with immunoglobulins, and nearly a quarter were undersupplied. This situation of be- ing undersupplied is called failure of passive transfer (FPT). “In practice, this means a high number of calves have an immune deficit and need additional support if the farm- er wants to maximise their genetic potential and avoid economic losses,” said Poppe.
18 ▶ DAIRY GLOBAL | Volume 8, No. 2, 2021
PHOTO: GERALD LAMPE
PHOTO: CHRIS MCCULLOUGH
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