Impacts of calving management, calf risk factors, and difficult calvings on health and performance of beef calves
Date
2019-08-28
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Abstract
Calf health and survival is crucial to successful cow-calf operations. Assisted calves are at a disadvantage compared to their herdmates because they may be injured, oxygen deprived, or less vigorous at birth. Determining evidence-based management practices to mitigate the effects of calving assistance on calf health and survival, as well as investigating risk factors associated with assisted calvings that affect transfer of passive immunity (TPI), morbidity, mortality, and growth, will help improve calf wellbeing. Therefore, the objectives of this thesis were to: benchmark the incidence of calving assistance and health outcomes, and describe current calving and colostrum management practices; to determine the impacts of subclinical trauma on calf vigour and TPI; and to investigate the impact of implementing pain mitigation at birth to assisted beef calves. Chapter 2 described current calving and colostrum management practices found on western Canadian cow-calf operations. Although the incidence of assisted calvings was low, the majority of producers assisted at least one calving, indicating the importance of understanding intervention and management strategies in compromised calves such as those assisted at birth. Chapter 3 quantified subclinical trauma associated with the degree of calving difficulty, and evaluated associations between subclinical trauma and calf vigour and TPI. Calves experiencing difficult births had elevated levels of subclinical trauma and decreased vigour. Subclinical trauma and reduced vigour were also associated with inadequate TPI. Chapters 4 and 5 investigated the clinical impacts of administering a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug to assisted beef calves at birth. In Chapter 4, calves administered meloxicam had greater average daily gain in the first week of life compared to placebo treated calves, but no effect was seen on pain and inflammatory mediators, vigour, TPI, health, or weaning growth. In Chapter 5, there was no effect of administering meloxicam to assisted calves on TPI, health, or growth, but vigour assessment and colostrum management were found to be important management tools associated with TPI, calf health, and growth. Therefore, calves assisted at birth experience subclinical trauma that affects their vigour and TPI. Pain mitigation strategies, vigour assessment, and colostrum management may be important tools to improve wellbeing in assisted beef calves.
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Keywords
beef calves, calf health, meloxicam, neonates, pain and inflammation, transfer of passive immunity, trauma, vigour
Citation
Pearson, J. M. (2019). Impacts of calving management, calf risk factors, and difficult calvings on health and performance of beef calves (Doctoral thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.