Weaning of dairy calves is an early life husbandry management practice which involves the changeover from a liquid to a solid feed based diet. The objectives of the study were to use RNA-seq technology to examine the effect of (i) breed and (ii) gradual weaning, on the whole blood mRNA transcriptome of artificially reared Holstein-Friesian and Jersey calves. The calves were gradually weaned ove...

The complex etiology of neonatal diarrhea in calves is revie­ wed. Viral invasion, replication sites and repair mechanisms are discus­ sed. Furthermore, the influence of multiple infections on diarrhea with respect to the predisposition after viral infection to colonization with bacteria-like enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli is examined. After a short introduction into the immunity of intestina...

Sex-sorted semen can increase the profitability of dairy cattle by producing offspring of the desired sex. The objective of the present study was to compare conception rate, stillbirth, calving difficulty and sex ratios from sexed and conventional semen in a commercial dairy herd in Isfahan province, Iran. Data were collected from April 2009 until December 2015 on 13,343 inseminations in 8,011 ...

To examine the dissemination of Shiga-toxigenic Escherichia coli (STEC) within cattle groups, dairy calves on two farms utilizing different calf-rearing practices were exposed to a traceable STEC strain. Test strain dissemination differed significantly between farms, with a higher prevalence being associated with group penning. Pen floors and calf hides may be the main environmental mechanisms ...

This study was conducted to determine the effect of experimentally increased glucose demand on voluntary consumption of molasses by dairy calves. Three-week-old calves received 0.365 g of phlorizin by s.c. injection. Urinary output and molasses consumption were measured hourly, and urinary glucose concentration was screened. Molasses consumption for the 24 h after treatment was (mean +/- SE) 72...

Cryptosporidiosis continues to be a problem for dairy calves and a perplexing public health risk, despite recent advances in molecular biology that have contributed to our knowledge of the pathobiology of the causative organism. Cryptosporidium infects at least 155 mammals, including humans and dairy cattle, primarily resulting in diarrhea. Unfortunately, the somewhat unique lifecycle of this p...

In this study we used field data collected from October 2001 to January 2002 to estimate number of days of faecal excretion of Salmonella Dublin bacteria and time to seroconversion in infected calves below the age of 180 days. Based on these estimates all calves in four endemically infected dairy herds were grouped into the following infection states: susceptible (S), infectious (I) and resista...

Over a period of two years, growth rate and health were measured for dairy calves allowed to suckle their mothers up to 6-8 weeks of age. Thirty-one calves were weighted weekly, and the mean daily growth rate was 1.2 +/- 0.03 kg from birth up to 13 weeks of age. Illness in calves and young stock was not observed. In the cows, the mean incidences of ketosis, displaced abomasum, puerperal paresis...

The prevalence of Cryptosporidium species in 1-2-year-old heifers was determined for 571 animals on 14 dairy farms in seven states on the East Coast of the United States. A fecal specimen collected directly from each heifer was processed to concentrate oocysts that were then examined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For every PCR-positive specimen the 18S rRNA gene of Cryptosporidium was seq...