title: Serum interleukin-6 as a prognostic marker in neonatal calf diarrhea.
abstract: Neonatal calf diarrhea is still one of the most important diseases in calf rearing, and severe diarrhea has a marked effect on animal welfare. Furthermore, significant economic losses can result from this disease due to high mortality rates, high medical costs, and low weight gain. To avoid a fatal outcome of the disease, it is crucial that vulnerable calves are identified as early as possible. Interleukin-6 is described as an early and reliable prognostic marker in several diseases. In this study, 20 scouring calves were tested by ELISA for their IL-6 serum concentrations. Samples were collected twice, at the beginning of diarrhea and 7 to 10d later. Regarding the clinical outcome after 7 to 10d, calves were classified as recovered or nonrecovered. A receiver operating characteristic analysis was conducted to determine the prognostic value of IL-6 for the progress of clinical symptoms. At the beginning of diarrhea, the IL-6 concentration was significantly higher in nonrecovering calves compared with those that recover 7 to 10d after the onset of diarrhea. Interleukin-6 proved to be a useful additional parameter in the clinical examination. High initial IL-6 values can support the decision for closer monitoring and an adapted therapeutic strategy for the respective calves. This may help to prevent unnecessary animal suffering and reduce economic losses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Division of Microbiology and Animal Hygiene, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Georg-August University Goettingen, Goettingen 37077, Germany.
authors.forename: Stephani
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Fischer
authors.affiliation: Institute of Hygiene and Infectious Diseases of Animals, Justus-Liebig University, Giessen 35392, Germany.
authors.forename: Rolf
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Bauerfeind
authors.affiliation: Department of Animal Sciences, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Division of Microbiology and Animal Hygiene, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Georg-August University Goettingen, Goettingen 37077, Germany.
authors.forename: Claus-Peter
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Czerny
authors.affiliation: Small Animal Clinic, Institute of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Georg-August University Goettingen, Goettingen 37077, Germany. Electronic address: sneuman@gwdg.de.
authors.forename: Stephan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Neumann
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000831:Animals, Newborn; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D003967:Diarrhea / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000662:veterinary; D005243:Feces; D015850:Interleukin-6 / Q000097:blood*; D011379:Prognosis
chemical_list: D015850:Interleukin-6
keywords: Cryptosporidium parvum; ELISA; bovine rotavirus; interleukin 6; neonatal calf diarrhea