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In dairy calves raised for veal, typical clinical signs of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) are ocular discharge, nasal discharge, ear droop or head tilt, abnormal respiration, cough, and increased rectal temperature. Despite the existence of several clinical scoring systems, there are few studies on the variability of human recognition of individual BRD clinical signs. The objective of this study was therefore to assess the inter-rater agreement of BRD clinical signs in veal calves. We hypothesized that BRD clinical signs were not detected equally between veterinarians, technicians, and producers of the veal industry and that some clinical signs have higher inter-rater agreement than others. During 2017-2018, we prospectively recorded 524 videos of physical examinations of random veal calves from 48 different batches in Québec, Canada. A researcher, not involved in the inter-rater assessment, classified each video as presence/absence of each BRD clinical sign except rectal temperature. For each of the 5 clinical signs, 15 videos with and 15 videos without the clinical signs were randomly selected to avoid kappa paradoxes. Those 30 videos were then presented in a random order to experienced raters of BRD in veal calves: 6 veterinarians, 6 technicians, and 6 producers. The raters assessed the clinical signs using scores based on the Wisconsin and California scoring system with modifications (0 = absent, 1 = mild, 2 = moderate, 3 = severe for nasal discharge, ocular discharge, and ear droop or head tilt; and 0 = absent, 1 = moderate, 2 = severe for abnormal respiration and induced cough). We used median percentage agreement (Pa), median Cohen's kappa (κ), and Gwet's agreement coefficient 1 (AC1) to assess inter-rater agreement. The effect of scale combination was also tested to determine the optimal combination (4-scale 0/1/2/3 vs. 3-scale 0/1/2 vs. 2-scale 0/1,2,3; 0,1/2,3; or 0/1,2). The differences of inter-rater agreement between veterinarians, technicians, and producers were estimated by a Wilcoxon rank-sum test. The 2-scale combination (0,1/2,3 or 0/1,2) had the highest inter-rater agreement for all clinical signs. With this combination, induced cough was the clinical sign with the highest inter-rater agreement (Pa = 0.93; κ = 0.79; AC1 = 0.87) and abnormal respiration was the sign with the lowest inter-rater agreement (Pa = 0.77; κ = 0.20; AC1 = 0.74). According to Pa and AC1 values, the 2-scale inter-rater agreement of the 5 clinical signs was good (value > 0.6). According to κ, only ear droop or head tilt and induced cough had a substantial 2-scale inter-rater agreement (κ > 0.6). In general, the 2-scale inter-rater agreement was better among veterinarians than among technicians and producers, except for the ear droop/head tilt, where agreement was better among producers. We concluded that with severity scores assessed on a scale of 2 (0,1/2,3 or 0/1,2), the inter-rater agreement of BRD clinical signs was variable according to the sign in veal calves. BRD clinical signs were not detected equally between ve...

BackgroundBovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a major problem in veal calf rearing units. The objective of this randomised clinical trial was to assess the effectiveness of tildipirosin as a metaphylactic treatment in veal calves on the number of BRD treatments, lung consolidation on thoracic ultrasonography (TUS) and average daily gain (ADG). A total of 209 veal calves from a pre-weaning fattening unit were randomly allocated to receive one of two treatments (tildipirosin 4 mg/kg, subcutaneously, n = 109; placebo 0.9% saline, subcutaneously, n = 100) at day 12 after entry in the pre-weaned unit. The calves were followed for a 70-day period. Occurrence of mortality and BRD treatments were recorded during the pre-weaning period. At days 1, 12 and 30, TUS and clinical scores were performed and ADG was measured during the first and second months of feeding.ResultsThe use of a metaphylactic treatment of tildipirosin 12 days after arrival of the veal calves was not associated with the number of BRD treatments performed by the producer, ultrasonographic lung consolidation or weight gain (P < 0,05). In this cohort of calves, the proportion of calves treated for BRD by the producer was low at 14% (29/209). However, 13% (26/209) of calves included in the study already had ultrasonographic lung consolidation lesions 12 days after their arrival, which was before treatment time, and 27% (56/209) had lung consolidation at day 30.ConclusionIn this study population with a low BRD prevalence, we were not able to detect any benefit of tildipirosin as a metaphylactic treatment of BRD at day 12 after arrival based on BRD treatments, TUS, and ADG.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12917-017-1097-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Background Abomasitis is a syndrome affecting young milk‐fed calves. The current veterinary literature describes mainly its necropsy findings. Objectives To describe the clinical presentation, complementary tests, treatments, and case‐fatality rate of calves with a clinical diagnosis of abomasitis and to identify potential factors associated with outcome. Methods Observational retrospective cohort study (2006‐2016). Review of the medical records of calves <3 months of age presented with abdominal and abomasal distension for <7 days that were clinically diagnosed with abomasitis at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of the Université de Montréal. A follow‐up examination was conducted by telephone interview. Animals Twenty‐three calves clinically diagnosed with abomasitis. Results Median age of presentation was 3 days (range, 0‐62 days). The typical duration of the clinical course was <24 hours (15/23). On admission, the 2 most common clinical signs were anorexia (13/14) and positive succussion (13/14). Hyper‐l‐lactatemia (15/16) and increased γ‐glutamyl‐transferase activity (13/14) were the most common laboratory abnormalities. Hypoproteinemia (19/22) and a left shift (15/18) of the neutrophils also were observed. The short‐term case‐fatality rate was 52% (12/23). The clinical diagnosis was confirmed on all necropsied calves. Clostridium spp. and Escherichia coli were the most frequently isolated bacteria. Based on univariate statistical analysis, the surviving calves were significantly (P < .05) less hypothermic, less acidemic, less hyper‐l‐lactatemic, and had lower serum creatinine concentrations on admission than did the deceased calves. Conclusions and Clinical Importance In our study, abomasitis was associated with a guarded prognosis.