The efficacy of active immunization against GnRH as a non-invasive alternative to physical castration was assessed in Hereford × Angus bull calves. Calves were randomly assigned to 1 of 4 treatment groups; unimmunized calves (n = 8), bull calves actively immunized against GnRH (n = 30), or calves castrated at 3 months of age and either non-implanted (n = 9) or implanted with Synovex (n = 9). Im...

Forty-seven Holstein calves (130 +/- 3.43 kg of BW and 95 +/- 1.5 d of age) were randomly assigned to 2 treatments [intact (INT), n = 23; or castrated (CAS), n = 24] to evaluate the effect of ring castration at 3 mo of age on welfare indicators. Castration was performed with local anesthesia (2% lidocaine, 3 mL in each testis and 2 mL in the scrotum) and analgesia (flunixin meglumine, intramusc...

probiotics are used to control or maintain a constant state of intestinal bacteria. when the bacterial populations are altered by stress or antibiotic therapy, animal health and performance may decline. this experiment was designed to study the effects of feeding a probiotic (saccharomyces cerevisiae cncm i-1079) on growth and health of neonatal holstein calves. forty –five neonatal holstein ca...

This study was conducted to investigate the effect of dietary chromium-methionine (Cr-Met) supplementation on growth performance, feeding behavior and physiological responses of Holstein male calves during two different phases of body weight (BW). Twenty six (153.5±9.83 kg of BW) male calves were divided in two groups (n=13) and randomly assigned to treatments: 1) control and 2) Cr-Met (1.1 mg ...

THE sperm tail-stump defect has been reported in Holstein bulls in Canada (Coubrough and Barker 1964) and Denmark (Blom 1976), and also in Charolais (Williams 1987), Ayrshire (Vierula and others 1983, 1987, Arriola and others 1985, Foote and others 1992) and polled Hereford (Peet and Mullins 1991) bulls. This short communication describes a case in a Holstein bull, which was investigated by usi...