Calf mortality in crossbred dairy cattle

Summary Information is given on crossbred calves between birth and 6 months of age belonging to 6 genetic groups—3 with 50% inheritance from Holstein, Jersey and Brown Swiss and the other 3 with 75% inheritance from 1 or 2 temperate dairy breeds.The mortality rate in 1,059 calves born was 3·87, 2·84 and 1·22% respectively under 1 month, from 1 to 3 and from 3 to 6 months of age. The mortality rate was lower in halfbreds than in crosses with 75% inheritance from temperate breeds. Season of birth, sex of the calf and birth weight did not show any significant association with mortality rate but the latter showed a definite decline with advancing age.No significant association of cause of mortality with age, genetic group and season of birth of the calves was observed. Percentage mortality was largely due to respiratory diseases in the birth to 1 month age group while diseases affecting the digestive system resulted in more deaths in the 3 to 6 months age group.

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Mortalidad De Terneros En Ganado Lechero Cruzado

Resumen Se hace un informe detallado sobre terneros cruzados desde el nacimiento hasta los 6 meses de edad, pertenecientes a 6 grupos genéticos; 3 con 50% herencia de Holstein, Jersey y Pardo Suizo y de otros 3 con 75% herencia de 1 o 2 razas lecheras de áreas templadas.La tasa de mortalidad en 1,059 terneros nacidos fué de 3.87, 2.84 y 1.22% respectivamente, en animales menores de 1 mes, de 1 a 3 y de 3 a 6 meses de edad. La tasa se mortalidad fué más baja en animales media sangre, que en cruces con 75% herencia de razas lecheras de áreas templadas. La época de nacimiento, sexo del ternero y peso al nacer, no tuvo relación con la tasa de mortalidad, la cual disminuzó progresivamente con la edad. A mayor edad menos mortalidad.No se observó relación directa entre causas de mortalidad, edad, grupos genéticos y estación al nacer. El porcentaje de mortalidad fué superior en el grupo estudiado desde el nacimiento hasta el mes de edad, debido a causas respiratorias. Las enfermedades gastrointestinales causaron más mortalidad en el grupo de 3 a 6 meses.

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Mortalite Des Veaux Chez Le Betail Laitier Ameliore

Résumé Les auteurs donnent des informations concernant des veaux métis entre leur naissance et l'âge de six mois appartenant à six groupes génétiques différents: trois groupes à 50 p. 100 d'Holstein, de Jersiais et de Suisse Brune et les trois autres groupes à 75 p. 100 de dominance de une à deux races laitières.Pour 1 059 veaux, le taux moyen de mortalité a été de 3,87, 2.84 et 1,22 p. 100 au-dessous de un mois d'âge, de 1 à 3 mois et de 3 à 6 mois.Le taux de mortalité a été plus bas chez les demi-sangs que chez les métis ayant 75 p. 100 de sang d'animaux de races tempérées.La saison de naissance, le sexe du veau et la poids à la naissance n'ont pas montré de relations significatives avec le taux de mortalité, mais il a été constaté par la suite que ce taux déclinait au fur et à mesure que les veaux prenaient de l'âge.Aucune association de nature significative entre les causes de mortalité avec l'âge, le groupe génétique et la saison de naissance n'a été observée.Dans le groupe des animaux de O à 1 mois d'âge ce sont les maladies respiratoires qui ont été le plus largement observées alors que ce sont les affections du système digestif qui ont causé le plus grand nombre de morts dans le groupe des animaux entre 3 et 6 mois d'âge.

     

Fox predation as a cause of lamb mortality on hill farms

Data collected between 1993 and 1996 from two Scottish hill farms were used to assess the potential importance of predation by foxes as a cause of lamb mortality. Farm 1 was in Midlothian and farm 2 in West Perthshire. Overall lamb mortality rates from birth onwards were 10.2 per cent for farm 1 and 9.3 per cent for farm 2. Sixteen lambs were identified as killed by foxes on the two farms during the four-year period. The minimum rates of fox predation were 0.6 per cent for farm 1 and 0.2 per cent for farm 2. All confirmed cases of fox predation were recorded during the period until the lambs were marked at about six weeks of age, and during this period another 53 lambs went missing from the two farms. Both groups of missing lambs were characterised by having significantly more siblings than the remaining lambs. A logistic regression model was able to classify the lambs killed by foxes and the missing lambs with 75 per cent accuracy on the basis of their birth rank alone. Of the total potential revenue from lamb production, the maximum losses due to confirmed fox predation in any one year were equivalent to 1.5 per cent on farm 1 and 0.6 per cent on farm 2.     

肉仔鸡饮水量——鸡的一个福利指标

本研究目的是分析商业化生产条件下的肉仔鸡饮水量数据以调查:①所获得的结果与其他研究结果之间的相互关系;②饮水量是否可以被客观地用作肉鸡健康和福利的量度标准;③总饮水量与淘汰水平和接触性皮炎的发病率之间是否存在相互关系?饮水量按"L/羽/c"即每羽肉鸡每个饲养周期(cycle)的平均饮水量)和"L/羽/d"即每羽肉鸡每天的平均饮水量)((的方式表示。为了确定饮水量对垫料湿度的影响,用水量也以"L/m2/c"即每个饲养周期每平方米鸡舍地面的平均用(水量(升))和"L/m2/d"即每天每平方米鸡舍地面所消耗的用水量(升)的方式表示,这两个指标考虑了肉鸡的饲养密度。(结果表明,以"L/m2/c"表示的饮水量可能是一个有益的滞后指标(LagIndicator),而以"L/羽/d"或"L/m2/d"表示的饮水量可能是一种先行指标(LeadIndicator),与肉鸡的健康状况以及饮水量对垫料质量的影响有关;同时表明还应进行更多的研究以确定肉鸡实测的每日饮水量与预期的每日饮水量之间的差异是否与其健康状况(如肠炎、接触性皮炎等)有直接的关系。本试验应该规定以"L/m2/d"方式表示的用水量的阈值,即饮水量达到此水平时会对垫料质量产生一个综合影响。该阈值可能受饲养密度、通风条件和垫料原料吸湿程度的影响,但是该值将向管理员提供一个"触发点"当处于该点时他们需采取行动以便将对空气质量(以氨气浓度的方式表示)的综合影响以及接触性皮炎发病的可,能性降至最低程度。     

Chronic gypsum fertiliser ingestion as a significant contributor to a multifactorial cattle mortality

Objective To assess the validity of claims that heavy metal contamination from an open-cut mine caused the death of 226 cattle on a nearby farm over a period of 18 months, and to investigate other possible contributing factors.
Procedure A retrospective assessment of previous investigations combinded with additional chemical analyses.
Results Extensive chemical analyses produced no evidence of heavy metal contamination associated with the mine. Analysis of bones indicated exposure to fluoride in greater than normal amounts. The main source of fluoride seems to have been gypsum that was included in a feed supplement and also ingested from fertiliser dumps on paddocks. The gypsum itself may have contributed significantly to the ill health. Other factors probably affected some classes of animals, notably the young calves.
Conclusions What originally seemed to be a disease problem of single aetiology probably was an expression of interacting multifactorial causes. This investigation has highlighted the potential toxicity of gypsum to livestock and the need for further studies to establish its basis.     

Peripheral lymphocyte subsets as a prognostic indicator of mortality and morbidity in healthy dogs

To evaluate the relationship among immune status and increased morbidity and mortality, peripheral blood lymphocytes (CD3(+), CD4(+), CD8(+) and CD21(+) cells) from 32 healthy dogs over 8 years of age were analyzed. Twenty-five of the 32 dogs were followed-up for 3 years after the analysis; and 14 dogs were found to be diseased, and nine dogs died. There was no notable difference between the ages of the dogs that died compared with the ones that survived. The relative percentage of CD4(+) and the CD4(+):CD8(+) ratio decreased notably in dogs falling ill compared with healthy dogs. The relative percentage of CD3(+) lymphocytes showed a notable decrease in dogs that died within 3 years in comparison with dogs that survived. In a discriminant analysis of morbidity and mortality, most patients were correctly classified as diseased or not and surviving or dead, respectively. These results indicate that the immunophenotypes of peripheral blood lymphocytes in older dogs offer promise as parameters for evaluating mortality and morbidity.     

Phosphorus deficiency in cattle on two farms in canterbury

A New Zealand canine herpesvirus isolate was inoculated into three 2-day-old puppies via the intraperitoneal route, two other puppies from the same litter being retained as in-contact controls. All pups were left suckling the bitch.

One inoculated pup died of misadventure. The remaining inoculated pups, and one in-contact pup, died with clinical signs of herpesvirus infection, the virus being subsequently recovered from a number of tissues. The remaining in-contact pup also developed typical disease, but recovered, virus being detected only in the tonsils. Lesions were detected in the diseased puppies in a wide variety of organs, and were consistent with previously published reports. No evidence of disease was detected in the bitch, but both she and the recovered pup developed neutralizing antibodies to the virus.     

Risks for bovine tuberculosis in British cattle farms restocked after the foot and mouth disease epidemic of 2001

The foot and mouth disease (FMD) epidemic of 2001 was used to investigate herd breakdown (HBD) with bovine tuberculosis (bTB) in totally restocked herds of cattle. By August 2004, 2941 restocked cattle herds, with cattle movements from before and after 2001, had been tested for bTB for the first time since restocking. A total of 6% (177) of these herds broke down at the first bTB test. A binomial logistic regression model with HBD (at least one reactor bovine) at the first test after restocking as the outcome was used to investigate risks associated with HBD. The final model contained three risk factors. There was an increased risk for HBD in restocked herds with every log increase in herd size with an OR=1.38 (CI 1.16-1.64) to a maximum OR of 10.75. When there was a history of bTB on the restocked farm before 2001 the OR, with CI not including unity, were 5.92, 4.63, 3.8 and 2.9 for last HBD in 2000, 1999, 1998 and 1997, respectively, indicating a persistence in increased risk for restocked herds from farms with a history of HBD in the previous herd before restocking, i.e. a different population of cattle. Finally, for every log increase in the number of cattle purchased from herds with a greater than biennial frequency of testing for bTB in the previous 8 years (i.e. perceived high risk herds for bTB) there was an OR=1.35 (95% CI 1.22-1.49). The maximum OR was 9.27. These results indicate that both introduction of bTB through the purchase of cattle from farms with a high perceived risk of bTB infection and persistence of bTB on the restocked farm, (not the farm's original herd), were associated with an increased risk of HBD in the newly formed herds after restocking.     

Ceruloplasmin as an indicator of copper status in cattle and sheep.

The relationship between ceruloplasmin, a metalloenzyme with oxidase activity, and copper was investigated in cattle and sheep. The oxidase activity of ceruloplasmin correlated closely with the serum or plasma copper concentrations in cattle. The respective correlation coefficients were 0.83 and 0.60. In sheep serum, a correlation coefficient of 0.92 was obtained. In each instance, the relationship remained linear from the deficient to the high normal ranges of copper. Comparison of the linear regression relationships indicated the ceruloplasmin activity in bovine serum was statistically lower than the activity in bovine plasma (P less than 0.0001), through the intercepts from the regression lines of the two relationships were similar (P = 0.412). Comparisons of ovine and bovine serum-ceruloplasmin relationships indicated that a significant species difference was present. Ovine ceruloplasmin activity increased more rapidly as compared to the corresponding bovine activity over the range of copper concentrations investigated (P less than 0.0001). The intercept from the ovine regression relationship was also lower (P less than 0.0001). A correlation coefficient of 0.35 was observed between the serum ceruloplasmin activity and hepatic copper concentrations in cattle indicating that the mathematical relationship was not as well defined. Ceruloplasmin activity appears to correlate more closely with serum or plasma copper concentrations as compared to corresponding liver copper concentrations.     

Productivity of crossbred cattle on smallholder farms in Southern Malawi

Summary A 10-year set of dairy records from a smallholder dairy scheme in the Republic of Malawi was analysed. Environmental and breed effects on the reproductive and productive parameters were evaluated. Age at first calving for 110, 1/2 Friesian and 55, 3/4 Friesian cows were 36·7 and 40·1 months respectively; calving intervals based on 432 and 145 records were 488 and 482 days; total lactation yields on 554 and 227 records were 1,950 and 2,452 kg. Geographical area of operation, parity of cow, year and month of calving and their interactions did not exert a significant influence on reproductive traits but significantly influenced milk production traits. Deficiency in feed supplies was believed to be a possible cause of problems in reproductive performance.

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Productividad De Ganado Cruzado En Pequenas Granjas En El Sur De Malawi

Resumen Se analizan en este trabajo, un grupo de registros provenientes de pequeñas unidades lecheras en la Republica de Malawi. Se evaluaron los efectos de ambiente y raza, sobre los parámetros productivos y reproductivos. La edad a la primera parición de 110 vacas media sengre Friesian y de 55 vacas 3/4 Friesian, fue de respectivamente 36.7 y 40.1 meses; el intervalo entrepartos basado en 432 y 145 registros fue de 488 y 482 dias, respectivamente; la lactación total tomando 781 registros, fue de 1950 y 2452 kg. El área geográfica de operación, el número de pariciones, el año y el mes de parición y la interacción de estos factores, no tuvo influencia significativa sobre rasgos reproductivos. La penuria forrajera, fue considerada la causa principal de problemas en cuanto a la función reproductiva se refiere.

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Productivite Du Betail Croise Dans De Petites Fermes Du Sud Du Malawi

Résumé On a analysé les résultats laitiers d'une action de développement laitier de petites unités laitières en République du Malawi. Les effects de l'environnement et de la race sur les paramètres de reproduction et de productivité ont été évalués. L'âge au premier vélage, chez 110, 1/2 Frisonnes et 55, 3/4 Frisonnes vaches a été de 36,7 mois et 40,1 mois respectivement; l'intervalle interelage base sur 432 et 145 enregistrements a été de 488 et 482 jours; les rendements de lactation totale chez 781 enregistrements ont été de 1950 et 2452 kg. L'aire géographique de l'opération, la parité de la vache, l'année et le mois du vélage et leurs interactions n'excluent pas une influence significative sur les traits de reproduction, mais influent significativement les traits de production laitière. On suspecte une déficience dans la fourniture de la ration comme cause possible des problèmes de reproduction.

     

Calf mortality rates on five Libyan dairy stations 1976–1980

Calf mortality rate (CMR) was studied on five Libyan dairy stations for the period 1976 through 1980 using life table and time series methods. CMR (birth-30 days) ranged from 12.5% to 26% for the various stations; the overall CMR (birth-90 days) for five stations for five years was 18.8%. CMR on the station with the highest CMR was highest May through July, increased greatly from 1977 through 1980, and was correlated with the number of calves born; monthly CMR increased with increased numbers of calves born. The increased CMR on several stations from 1977 through 1980 was associated with the departure of foreign calf care workers in 1977, and their replacement by other foreign workers with little livestock experience. The one station which employed Libyan farmers as calf caretakers had the lowest female CMR and was the only station on which female CMR was significantly different from male CMR.     

Investigation of calf health and welfare on dairy farms in south-west England

A questionnaire was designed to investigate calf health and welfare on dairy farms in the south west of England with regard to the degree of compliance with the Welfare of Farmed Animals (England) Regulations 2000. The level of veterinary involvement in calf rearing and management on dairy farms in the south west of England was also assessed. The questionnaire was sent to 32 large animal practices in the catchment area of the Veterinary Laboratories Agency--Langford. Compliance with the regulations was found to be variable. The requirements for the isolation of sick calves, provision of bovine colostrum within six hours of birth, the provision of fresh, clean water and restrictions concerning tethering were not well complied with. However, the requirements for twice-daily feeding and inspection, visual and tactile contact between calves, access to forage and the provision of clean, dry bedding were well complied with. The results also suggested that there was some lack of veterinary input into the health and welfare of calves on dairy farms visited by the practices routinely and non-routinely.     

Kid mortality on two major government farms in Ceylon

Summary International standards for measuring mortality rates in livestock have not yet been developed. Hence comparison of mortality rates of livestock in different countries is difficult. Some standards for measuring mortality rates in kids are suggested. Two thousand five hundred and thirty pregnancies of goats over a five year period on two government goat farms in Ceylon were analyzed. The overall kid mortality was 28·42 per cent. Deaths of kids under one month of age and 2–4 months of age were high. The causes of these deaths are discussed.

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Sumario Aún no se han desarrollado patrones internacionales para medir los porcentajes de mortalidad en el ganado. De aquí que la comparación de los porcentajes de mortalidad del ganado en países distintos es difícil. Se sugieren algunos patrones para medir los porcentajes de mortalidad en caprinos jóvenes. Durante un periodo de cinco a?os se han analizado dos mil quinientas treinta pre?eces de cabras de dos haciendas de cabras de Ceylón. La mortalidad general de los cabritos fué del 28.42%. Las muertes de cabritos menores de un mes de edad y entre 2–4 meses fueron altas. Las causas de estas muertes son discutidas.

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Résumé Il n'existe pas encore de méthodes normalisées à l'échelon international pour évaluer les taux de mortalité chez le bétail. Il s'ensuit que les comparaisons sont difficiles à faire entre pays différents. Quelques normes pour apprécier ces taux de mortalité sont ici suggérés. Dans deux fermes d'Etat à Ceylan, on a suivi pendant cinq ans la gestation chez 2.530 chèvres. La mortalité globale des chevreaux atteignait 28,42 p. 100. Son taux était particulièrement élevé chez les animaux agés de moins d'un an et de deux à quatre mois. Les causes de ces accidents sont discutées.