A molecular epidemiological study was conducted on 100 dairy (499 calves) and 50 beef (333 calves) farms in Belgium to estimate the prevalence of different Giardia duodenalis assemblages in calves younger than 10 weeks of age. Positive samples from the epidemiological study and from a previous clinical study were selected and genotyped based on the amplification of the beta-giardin gene. To inv...

Dairy cattle breeding is an important technology in the enhancement and promotion of dairy production in Uganda. The introduction of germplasm through AI is crucial to enhance the production potential of the local breeds. A study was conducted in six districts of Uganda in the central region using a questionnaire survey involving 450 randomly selected households to profile the dairy breeding se...

Calving complications have an incidence on the economic profitability of dairy herds. In the Walloon Region of Belgium, calving ease data recording is being done on voluntary basis since 2000. This allows now the implementation of a genetic evaluation of Holstein dairy cattle addressing the need of dairy breeders to select bulls in order to reduce frequency of calving problems. Calving ease sco...

BACKGROUND Failure of transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) is the underlying predisposing risk factor for most early losses in dairy calves. Refractometers, either optical or digital, can be used to assess FTPI as a part of calf health monitoring program on dairy operations. OBJECTIVES To evaluate the performance of and differences between digital Brix and optical refractometers for assessing ...

The objective of this study was to validate the diagnostic accuracy Petrifilm culture system (3M, St. Paul, MN) for identifying colostrum with excessive bacterial contamination. An observational cross-sectional conducted between October 2015 and February 2016. Two aliquots were collected during first meal 332 calves (33 commercial Holstein dairy farms) in Quebec, Canada. One aliquot per calf us...

Replacement heifers are key to the future milking herd and farm economic efficiency but not always prioritised on dairy farms. Dairy enterprises comprised of components which compete for limited resources; scarce information about calf performance associated losses (potential) gains farms can mean calves less in management investment decisions. The research reported this paper explored personal...

Dairy calves are extremely susceptible to gastro-intestinal disease during the pre-weaned period. The risk for enteric disease decreases as the calf ages; therefore, it is important to break the pre-weaned period up into at least 2 distinct phases that likely need to be managed differently, early life (1st and maybe the 2nd week of life) and the remaining time the calf is fed fluid. When a calf...