[Influence of rearing conditions on the frequency of diarrhea in newborn calves and the efficacy of oral treatment].
A survey was carried out in 181 holdings of various production types to measure the influence of calf housing conditions and feeding of cows during late pregnancy on the frequency of calf diarrhea and an oral treatment efficiency. A second objective was to compare the efficiency of the different oral rehydratants used. The frequency of diarrhea was 51%. Slightly more than half the cases occurred during the first week of life. The dam's unadequate feeding increased morbidity (53% versus 47% with adequate feeding). We were unable to measure the efficiency of good housing conditions, because only five holdings fitted the quality criteria which had been initially specified. In the other holdings, the cohabitation was found to be less harmful than separation in bad conditions: too many calves together, too small an area per animal, draughts or deficient air removal. Therapy efficiency was not significantly higher when appropriate feeding was given than with unadequate feeding. Treatment efficiency by an oral rehydratant only was lower with calves which were housed with their dam's than when they were outdoors. Three rehydratants, Electydral ND, Biodiet ND, Ionidiar ND had similar results that were significantly higher than those of the others. With the sodium acetate-based formula, Electydral ND, 30% of the calves recovered when it was given alone for 36 hours, 96% recovered when it was given for 72 hours, combined with oral antibiotic therapy for 36 hours.
D000822:Animal Husbandry; D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology*; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000662:veterinary*
Influence des conditions d'élevage sur la fréquence des diarrhées de veaux nouveau-nés et sur l'efficacité de leur traitement par voie orale.