Protect newborn calves and be ready with the best Response to calf scour

It is well known that scour is the most common disease problem in the young unweaned calf. Calf scour has many potential causes, ranging from bacterial or viral pathogens to protozoal or simply nutritional problems.

Often a combination of these infectious agents, such as E coli and Cryptosporidium are involved in outbreaks on many farms across the UK & Ireland. Many cases of scour spread rapidly, causing severe dehydration within a few hours of the onset of the disease.

With calves born with no protection against the microorganisms that cause scours, it is vital that they receive initial protection, known as passive immunity, from the correct quantity of high-quality colostrum, and that it is given within the first few critical hours after birth.

After this, they will start to develop their own active immunity to protect them. However, this leaves an immunity gap for calves when passive immunity tails off and acquired active immunity is slowly maturing, thereby leaving a ‘gap’ in their immune systems, typically day 7–14 (see Image 1).

During this high-risk period, newborn calves are more susceptible to infection from pathogens such as E. coli, Rotavirus, Cryptosporidia etc which biomedical research across various species in recent years has established can damage the tight junctions of the calf’s intestine, leading to a ‘leaky gut’ syndrome.

Protecting your calves

International scientific literature in the last 10 years has demonstrated how probiotics can seal and close the tight junctions of the gut, thereby improving the gut barrier to infection from these various pathogens. This key feature is undoubtedly one of the believed mechanisms underlying the high efficacy of Provita’s licensed probiotic, Protect, in E. coli calf scour, the company says.

Provita Protect POM VPS is the only veterinary probiotic to be authorised and licensed by the VMD.  When given as soon as possible after birth (or upon arrival of bought in calves), Protect establishes beneficial bacteria in the calf’s gut. Various field trials using over 400 calves established the following main benefits of Protect:

• 83% less incidence of scours
• 50% less incidence of respiratory disease
• +10% live weight gain weaning
• +31% average daily weight gain.

The right Response

Supporting calves’ gut health and immune system further, and similar to Protect, Provita’s Response range provides high levels of energy and egg powder, natural EU-sourced colostrum and beneficial bacteria. The energy sources in these products are instant and slow release, kick-starting the newborn’s metabolism and getting it up and sucking quickly, Provita says.

Provita’s Response range should be used during periods on farm when disease outbreaks traditionally occur. Invariably this will happen between 7–14 days of age when there is an immunity gap for the calf, when passive immunity from the maternal colostrum weans and the calf slowly starts to build up its own acquired immunity. This ‘immunity gap’ is a high-risk period for infection, so calves need particular attention to push them through this period with no setbacks.

Thriving calves and reduced antibiotic use

George Shaw, who has a beef farm in County Down, explains: “I have always been interested in taking a preventative approach when it comes to the health of calves. We prefer to ensure that when our calves are first born they are given the recommended dose of Provita Protect, and for any particularly hard cases we will give them a shot of Response Paste along with this.

“We find that it has kept our cases of calf scour under control very well. Since we have started using the products I can only recall one case of calf scour and that was actually related to antibiotic usage for pneumonia.

“For bought-in calves we ensure that they all receive Response Paste as they tend to be slower to drink. As long as they receive Response Paste you find that they will generally be much quicker to drink the next morning. On our farm we know that it is very important to ensure that our calves thrive to their potential. We try not to use antibiotics where possible and to use probiotics as a strong preventative approach.”

Dave Johnson from Harcourt Farm in Shrewsbury has been milking cows for 20 years. He uses Provita Response calf paste on all his calves as soon as they are born. He explains that he does so to cut down his use of antibiotics and rehydration products – his motto is ‘prevention is better than cure’.

For more information email info@provita.co.uk or Freephone 0800 389 6952.