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Birth Traits Associated with Pre-Adulthood Disease Manifestations in Calves
1
College of Animal Science and Technology, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
2
Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Cow Genetic Improvement and Milk Quality Research, Wenzhou 325000, China
3
Experimental Farm, Yangzhou University, Yangzhou 225009, China
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Animals 2024, 14(19), 2844; https://doi.org/10.3390/ani14192844
Submission received: 3 August 2024
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Revised: 26 September 2024
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Accepted: 30 September 2024
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Published: 2 October 2024
(This article belongs to the Section Cattle)
Simple Summary
Calf health is a critical consideration for animal welfare and farm profitability. Diarrhea and pneumonia are the two most common diseases threatening calf health. In addition to diseases, birth traits have been recognized by farms in recent years as important indicators of calf health and welfare. Given this, currently people are not only concerned about the health status of calves, but increasingly focused on the birth traits of calves derived from a reproductive perspective, including gestation length, calf weight at birth, and calving ease score. The period of calf growth and development spans from birth to six months of age. We believe that the birth traits of calves should be correlated to some extent with their health status during this growth and development period. This study assessed the correlation between calf birth traits and their disease manifestations during the growth and development period. We have found that the length of pregnancy in the dam and the season of calf birth may influence the duration of treatment for calf diarrhea and pneumonia. Additionally, we believe that calves born in winter may require increased care or higher medication dosages after illness onset. Moreover, an ideal gestation period for cows may be between 278 and 282 days, which could potentially result in lower rates of pneumonia occurrence in calves or shorter treatment durations for pneumonia.
Abstract
The objective of this study was to explore the relationship between calf birth traits and their susceptibility to diseases before reaching adulthood. A total of 5253 birth traits of Chinese Holstein calves were examined, including gestation length (GL), calf weight at birth (CW), and calving ease score (CES), which ranges from 1 (easy) to 5 (very difficult). Furthermore, monthly medical records were scrutinized for pneumonia and diarrhea in these calves. The study assessed five aspects of disease manifestation in calves: age at first onset, frequency of illness, longest duration of treatment, and total duration of treatment. The link between age at onset and disease manifestation prior to adulthood was analyzed using general linear models and regression models. The GL of calves significantly correlated with the risk of pneumonia, with the risk decreasing as the GL increases. A higher CES was associated with a later onset of diarrhea in calves. Furthermore, the CES was significantly negatively correlated with the duration of diarrhea treatment in calves. These results suggest that implementing different preventive measures for calves with different birth traits and modifying treatment protocols for affected calves could enhance the productivity of dairy cows and reduce losses on farms.
Keywords:
calf; birth traits; health traits; animal welfare
