Search

Respiratory disease negatively impacts growth, reproductive performance, milk production, and longevity of adult cattle. Most calves diagnosed with clinical respiratory disease on dairy farms are treated with antibiotics. Treatment failure is not uncommon and although management factors likely contribute to these treatment failures, the role of antimicrobial resistance cannot be ruled out. Therefore, the objective of this study was to describe pathogen prevalence and antimicrobial resistance patterns for pathogens associated with respiratory disease isolated from samples submitted to the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory between 2008-2017., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2019

American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2018

Preweaning is a high-risk time period for dairy calves; pneumonia is a predominant cause of mortality and use of antibiotics on farms. Given the concern of antibiotic resistance, there is demand to investigate alternative therapies. Administering probiotics to alter the respiratory microbiome and reduce the risk of pneumonia has shown promising results in mice. Although the bacterial community dynamics of the upper airway have been investigated in dairy calves, they have not been evaluated in calves diagnosed with pneumonia using lung ultrasound (US). By allowing visualization of lung consolidation, US increases the sensitivity of pneumonia diagnosis. Elucidating phenotypes of the commensal community in healthy and pneumonic dairy calves is crucial to investigating probiotics as a preventative for pneumonia. The primary objective of this prospective case-control study was to describe bacterial communities in the nasopharynx (NP) of preweaned dairy calves with and without lung consolidation. Secondary objectives included evaluating the effects of previous antibiotic therapy and age on the composition of NP microbiota., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2018

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) continues to be a major cause of morbidity and mortality of preweaned dairy calves. Costs associated with this condition include drug and labor costs as well as loss of animal productivity. Recent use of clinical scoring systems and thoracic ultrasonography allows for the diagnosis of different BRD subtypes including upper respiratory tract infection, clinical pneumonia, and subclinical pneumonia. Previously, the impact of antibiotic therapy has not been evaluated on these different BRD subtypes. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the impact of antibiotic therapy on the health and performance of preweaned dairy calves affected by different BRD subtypes., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2017

Although passive transfer of antibodies to the newborn calf provides many great benefits, high levels of maternal antibodies may limit the ability of the calf to respond to parenterally administered vaccines against the respiratory viruses associated with bovine respiratory disease (BRD). Experimental challenge studies have demonstrated varying levels of efficacy of vaccines administered via the intranasal route. Unfortunately, direct identification of lung lesions associated with BRD requires euthanasia and often limits the size of study populations. As an alternative, thoracic ultrasonography (US) can be performed quickly and provides an accurate antemortem assessment of lung health. Therefore, the purpose of this randomized controlled clinical trial was to evaluate the effect of an intranasal vaccine on calf health, ultrasonographic lung lesions, and growth in young Holstein calves., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2014

The pathophysiology of bronchopneumonia (BP) is such that peripheral airways fill with neutrophilic exudate, which results in pulmonary consolidation and atelectasis. This exudate increases the proportion of neutrophils in bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF), with proportions ranging from 10% to 20% suggestive of BP. Pulmonary ultrasonography (US), which differentiates between aerated and nonaerated lung tissue, has good sensitivity (Se = 85%) and specificity (Sp = 98%) for detection of BP in clinically ill calves and might be useful for diagnosis of subclinical BP. The purpose of this study was to compare thoracic US with BALF as a means to diagnose subclinical BP in dairy calves, with gross postmortem examination used as the gold standard., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2013

Detection of subclinical disease has become the focus of much research in the recent past, e.g. mastitis and ketosis in dairy cattle, and pneumonia secondary to Rhodococcus equi infection in foals. The purpose of this study was to assess, using thoracic ultrasonography, the prevalence of abnormal lungs in pre-weaned dairy calves. Subsequent objectives were to describe ultrasonographic changes within the lung, respiratory score, and treatment of respiratory disease., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2011

Neonatal dairy calf maintenance energy requirements are 1.75 Meal per day at thermoneutral temperatures. Conventional milk replacer feeding programs (e.g. 2 quarts of reconstituted solids twice per day) provide approximately 2.2 Meal per day. Considering the abundance of environmental and pathogenic challenges faced by neonatal calves, these conventional programs provide little energy for maintaining body temperature, mounting immune responses, and growing at expected rates of 1 to 2 pounds per day and weight loss often occurs for the initial week of life. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of conventional nutritional plane versus a higher nutritional plane on the health status, muscle development, and initial weight loss in neonatal dairy calves., American Association of Bovine Practitioners Proceedings of the Annual Conference, 2010