The second instalment of the March Animal Health Series in association with MSD Animal Health was broadcast on Agriland last evening (Tuesday, March 21).

It highlighted how developing a management plan to prevent pneumonia in calves is essential to ensure an efficient calving season.

Vet Frank O’Sullivan was joined by Co. Meath dairy farmer Conor O’Sullivan and Sarah Higgins, ruminant veterinary manager with MSD Animal Health Ireland.

Conor O’Sullivan explained that he returned home to farm in Co. Meath when milk quotas were abolished in 2015.

He started off milking 120 cows and over the past few years has built the herd up to about 220 cows in a fully spring-calving operation.

“We try to get cows calved as compactly as possible in the spring and get cows to grass as soon as possible,” he said.

Preventing calf pneumonia with colostrum management

The importance of colostrum management was a key element of the discussion.

Vet, Frank O’Sullivan said: “Conor well understands the importance of this and we’ve recently tested through bloods, looking at IG levels, testing calf colostrum on random calves and it has been very good. So that shows that he has got the principles right.”

These principles are to provide 3L of colostrum to calves within the first two hours of life and to ensure colostrum is harvested in a hygienic way, storing it in a cold fashion and feeding it out immediately.

Conor explained that he has 140 calves on-farm now after the five-week calving period.

“140 calves in five weeks, that’s not only a challenge for managing the transition of those cows and the key for the rest of the season, but also he has to manage those calves in terms of nutrition and preventing disease as well,” Frank O’Sullivan explained.

The farmer said the main aspect for him at the start of calving is colostrum management and ensuring calves are placed in pens as soon as possible, into the various groups they will stay in until the weaning period.

The vet then added that one of the main issues he sees on farms is calf diarrhoea and the various reasons for this, and added that calf pneumonia is “equally important”.

Calf housing

On Conor’s farm, Frank explained that the farmer aims to get his nutrition as optimal as possible; this incorporates good-quality milk replacer, appropriate bedding with adequate meal and water available to calves.

Conor explained that he has no purpose-built calf housing on the farm currently, and therefore the calf shed is one of three sheds that he adapts for the purpose of housing calves when necessary.

“Ideally in the future, purpose-built calf housing is something we will do on this farm,” Conor said.

Frank added that calves lose most of their heat through their feet so nesting and bedding is vitally important. “It’s almost like a little duvet around their feet,” he said.

Allowing air to circulate through a calf shed above the calves is also important, according to the vet, and placement of drinkers, for instance, at the front of the pen will prevent overspill or urination into the main bedding area.

Vaccination

Another key requirement to ensure healthy calves is a vaccination programme.

Conor explained that they vaccinate calves anywhere between one-day-old to two-weeks-of-age as part of a herd health plan in conjunction with the vet.

“Conor has calves coming in here thick and fast, so to keep track of things, he uses the Bovilis intranasal vaccine, which he can do from a day old, right up to a week or 10-days-old, depending on what’s coming in,” Frank explained.

Conor pens the calves into groups of 15, so that when the pen is full, he vaccinates all calves in that specific pen to allow him to keep track of those that are vaccinated and those that are not.

The vet said that he believes intranasal vaccines have been a “game changer” for animal care. “We would have seen that calves were getting sicker with pneumonia much earlier than we previously thought,” he said.

“So, in unvaccinated herds, especially herds where stock were mixing and maybe buying-in calves, the stress… you were finding they were getting sick at 2/3 weeks-of-age.

“By getting in earlier, and the intranasal route is that localised protection when you’re stimulating the localised immunity in the respiratory tract, the calf has a ready-made defence, from a very young age,” Frank added.

This also has a beneficial long-term impact for calves in terms of growth rates.

Frank also advises that after the 12-week immunity period with the initial vaccine, it’s important to continue to cover the calves throughout the summer with booster vaccinations, continuing into the autumn/winter with a pre-housing vaccination.

The benefit of keeping disease off the farm is significant for Conor and he explained that there is not a huge labour resource on the farm, so keeping infection away helps with the workload long-term.

“I’d always try and prevent a problem from happening rather than deal with it when it does happen, so vaccinations are a big part of the plan on this farm,” he said.

Signs of pneumonia

According to the vet, the clinical signs of pneumonia are as follows:

  • High temperature;
  • Nasal discharge;
  • Sometimes crustiness in the eye;
  • Slight pant in the calf.

“When we come across that situation we always make sure to check many calves in the pen, because there are going to be, certainly, one or two that are acutely affected, but there are others that are, maybe, incubating, and then others that maybe have been through it,” Frank explained.

The vet said that there may be a necessity to treat the calf with anti-inflammatories at that stage or subsequently to administer antibiotics.

Frank added that it is then important to look at the factors which may have resulted in a bout of pneumonia in part of the herd, such as colostrum management, ventilation, etc.

Sarah Higgins from MSD added: “It’s been shown that both clinical and subclinical [infections] have massive repercussions for the long-term impact on productivity and ultimately, profitability for the farmer.

“From a clinical point of view, heifer calves that have one bout of respiratory disease in their first eight weeks of life, will have reduced yield in their first lactation, up to 525L and they’ll also have a delay in the start of their first lactation.

“From a beef point of view, the subclinical cases can take 33 days longer to finish versus those with none, and clinical cases can take nearly two months longer to finish,” she explained.

Frank O’Sullivan also explained that the period of lungworm in animals has also been extending into the autumn due, in part, to longer grazing seasons.

The discussion highlighted that managing disease in calves is often farm specific and is an evolving situation, as the plan may not be the same from year to year, so it is important to liaise with the vet to devise a plan that works.

March Animal Health Series

There is more to come from the March Animal Health Series on Agriland, which is in association with MSD Animal Health Ireland.

The series will continue with the next instalment on Thursday, March 23, with a focus on controlling coccidiosis in lambs and calves.

Previous instalments of the series can be viewed by clicking here.