Youngstock health: Effective disease prevention today ensuring tomorrow's profitable herd

Abstract

Foreword Proactive youngstock health management is critical not only to optimise animal welfare and production efficiency and profitability, but also to minimising the environmental impact of livestock production. The morbidity and mortality rates tolerated by some producers, and at times even accepted by their vets, are often far too high. Whether it is the loss of dairy bull calves, who may have little monetary value but nevertheless contribute to both the carbon footprint and other environmental impacts of a dairy if not utilised for food production, dairy heifers with the additional loss of the best genetics in the herd or a beef suckler calf representing the only product of the cow that year, we need to do all we can to prevent death and disease. Even where calves do not die, managing sick animals is costly in treatment and labour and antibiotic use in these animals to treat, and on some farms still to prevent disease, is very likely to contribute to antimicrobial resistance. The only logical conclusion that one can come to is that if cattle units are to remain viable and produce sustainable milk and meat, we need to redouble efforts to prevent disease. Sometimes we talk of new science, while at other times we find ourselves repeating ‘the same old message’. The need for adequate colostrum management is one such case, the messages may not be new but far too many calves still fail to receive enough maternally derived antibody, making the article in this supplement on colostrum vital reading. Don't assume you, or more importantly your clients, know everything there is to know about colostrum. After ensuring calves have received initial protection via maternal derived antibody from colostrum then we need to ensure they are protected from infections as they grow, particularly respiratory diseases. Despite having had good vaccines for over 20 years, their uptake in the national herd I believe is still suboptimal, far too many calves still receive antimicrobials, and poor growth rates are common due to chronic lung damage. Ellie Button explains well in her article ‘Calf disease: an immunological perspective’ the calf's innate and acquired immunity and describes how an understanding of the calf's developing immunity can be used to enhance disease prevention. Finally, Kat Hart and colleagues discuss communication and promoting behaviour change in ‘How to engage farmers in youngstock care: a clinical forum’, something that in the past we have often forgotten. It's not good enough for vets to understand the science and turn a blind eye to poor on farm practices, or to simply tell clients what to do and walk away expecting them to do as they have been told! We often need to motivate clients towards real lasting change, and to do that we all need to communicate better. Together the three articles in this supplement are a powerful combination, the challenge is to read them and then effect valuable changes on your clients’ farms.

OPEN ACCESS: Insights into UK farmers' attitudes towards cattle youngstock rearing and disease

“…A recent article for veterinary surgeons on 'Engaging farmers in youngstock care' demonstrates an opportunity and interest in this subject for further research (Hart, 2020). This could focus on comparing farmer knowledge and attitudes with how effectively their veterinary practice disseminates and communicates information.…”

A survey of colostrum management practices on UK dairy farms

“…Encouraging dairy farmers to become more proactive in monitoring calf health parameters such as serum IgG concentrations seems to be challenging for vets (Barrett et al, 2020) and it has been asserted that: "Although good progress has been made in the past 20 years, there remains a considerable opportunity for many dairy producers to improve their colostrum management practices, resulting in improved short-term and long-term health and performance of the animals" (Godden et al, 2019, p. 535). It has been corroborated by other literature that there is an opportunity for more veterinary involvement in on -farm monitoring, since no farms monitored either colostrum quality or passive transfer outside a study by Johnson et al, 2017, and the majority of farms surveyed (57-87%) by Boulton et al (2015) and Barry et al (2017) did not check the quality of the colostrum before feeding.…”

Calf health veterinary services: Making them work for calves, farmers and veterinarians

“…Good calf health is critical for sustainable dairy and beef production. [1][2][3] There is scope to improve calf health in the UK. 4 There is also increasing incentive to do so, as drives to reduce carbon footprints, 5 input costs 6,7 and antibiotic use 8 all focus attention in this area, alongside improved calf values associated with the use of sexed semen and an expanding beef from dairy sector.…”

“…Good calf health is critical for sustainable dairy and beef production 1–3 . There is scope to improve calf health in the UK 4 .…”