Vusumuzi Dube
THIS week we discuss a disease which commonly affects calves. It is called calf paratyphoid or Salmonellosis. It causes diarrhoea and death in calves, while in cows it causes diarrhoea, death and abortions.
It is more serious in young calves and weaned calves and can cause a wide range of symptoms. There are several strains of types of salmonella. In young suckling calves, the disease is caused by a type of Salmonella called Salmonella typhimurium.
In weaned calves, the most common cause of the disease is Salmonella Dublin. S. Typhimurium affects young calves between the ages of one and four weeks. S. Dublin mainly affects calves one to four months old. It is also more common in dairy cows than in beef cattle, mainly as a result of the intensive management and stress, which also place cattle in feedlots in a higher risk category. Salmonella is excreted into the environment by healthy symptomless carriers, which is either the dam or other calves.
The calf becomes infected through ingestion of the salmonella from the environment especially contaminated pastures and feeds, housing, and contaminated stagnant waters. Salmonellosis is common in unhygienic, dirty and wet environments and when calves are mixed at weaning. Salmonella could infect calves of any age resulting in a variety of different disease symptoms, varying from sudden death in the absence of any preliminary signs of disease, to a low-grade chronic infection that has few clinical signs, apart from weight loss and a generally poor performance.
The most common disease symptoms encountered is one in which there is a high temperature; refusal to eat or drink; listlessness; putty-like, progressive diarrhoea having an offensive odour and containing lots of mucous and possibly blood; rapid breathing; a watery nasal discharge; a light cough that may persist for weeks while the calf is recovering from the disease. scouring which resemble the one caused by S. typhimurium may occur.
Sometimes, scouring may be seen containing lumps of intestinal wall, blood and mucus. Infected calves would be dull and lack appetite. Occasionally, a group of calves may appear thrifty abruptly and sudden deaths may be observed. Prevention and control of calf paratyphoid may include isolating the sick calves to reduce the likelihood of infection to the remainder of the group; ensuring a clean housing, moving animals out of dirty pens to avoid calves being exposed to dung full of salmonella.
Also avoid wet and damp conditions. Salmonella thrives in the environment when it is wet. Give adequate colostrum to boost immunity of the calf soon after birth. Adequate colostrum given to calves will provide enough immunity for the calf’s body to fight most of the infections. Treatment is generally by use of antibiotics to control the diarrhoea. However, penicillin-based or oxytetracycline-based antibiotics should be avoided as these tend to kill even some beneficial bacteria that are needed by the calf’s body.
Use of sulphur-based antibiotics is generally recommended. The most important aspect though, is to maintain a hygienic environment and observe biosecurity measures for bought in animals. A calf is your potential replacement animal and it also determines your organic growth of the herd and subsequently your offtake, hence proper care for calves is paramount and hence prevention and/control of salmonellosis in calves is very essential.
General calf management practices should be able to prevent or minimise incidences of calf paratyphoid in your herd. As a general principle you should be worried to have an unthrifty, sickly calf in your herd. Calves usually have smooth coat, lively and full of energy. It is in fact a pleasure to stand around the kraal and watch your calves go about their business, if they are healthy because the energy in them is infectious! Uyabonga umntaka MaKhumalo.
This article borrows substantially from infonet-biovision.org. Mhlupheki Dube is a livestock specialist and farmer. He writes in his own capacity. Feeback: [email protected]/ cell 0772851275
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