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The first hour of birth sets the stage for a calf’s life. Those 60 minutes are critical for the calf to absorb antibodies essential to a strong immune system. Although some newborns quickly succumb to disease, most stay healthy and experience a productive life. But up to 20 percent become ill with neonatal diarrhea (scours) and go on to suffer a cascade of illness resulting in economic loss for the dairy and personal frustration for producers.
Bobbi Jo Brockmann First Defense VP of sales and marketing and Mark Wustenberg, DVM, the company’s commercial leader of stakeholder engagement explain both the short- and long-term costs of diarrhea with a focus on the cascade effect: more than diarrhea, a weakened immune system, rise in death and illness risk, reduced average daily gain (ADG), late first calving, reduction in milk yield during the first lactation and potential for intestinal damage,
Read more about the cascade effect and, importantly, how to prevent scours in the first place
This post originally appeared in Progressive Dairy magazine.