Protect the long-term health and profitability of your dairy by providing calves with the care they need to start life right. The Calf Immunology Resource Center offers a number of resources to help you learn more about the calf’s unique immune system and techniques for managing the health of the calf from conception to weaning, including content that focuses on calf immunology, dairy calf nutrition, scours prevention, therapeutic treatment and much more.
Latest Postings:
Cattle value reduced after exposure to PI cattle (Respiratory Health)
New research shows that persistently infected cattle can actually decrease the profitability of surrounding cattle – even those that never develop the clinical disease.
Vaccinating the cow protects the calf (Immunology Primer)
A regular vaccination program is an insurance policy that can help protect two animals for the price of one.
Don’t let respiratory problems snowball (Respiratory Health)
Pneumonia is the most important disease in calves older than 30 days and, according to the National Animal Health Monitoring System, results in an average loss of $15 per calf per year. The challenge in controlling this disease is to catch it early, as the growth rate of respiratory bacteria can double every 30 minutes.
Maternal cells in colostrum (Immunology Primer)
New immunology research is showing the effects of maternal cells in colostrum when given to newborn calves.
Scours caused by variety of pathogens (Scours Prevention)
One of the reasons why calf scours is such a challenging disease for producers is that it can be caused by a combination of two or more pathogens.
Add colostrum to milk for gut protection (Colostrum)
Colostrum at birth is essential for passive transfer of immunity to calves, but colostrum may also be beneficial in helping older calves fight of intestinal disease.
Calf respiratory disease scoring chart (Respiratory Health)
The University of Wisconsin Calf Respiratory Disease Scoring Chart includes scoring factors such as age, nasal discharge, eye or ear, cough (spontaneous or induced) and temperature. Full story.
We’re not out of the woods yet (Immunology Primer)
Failure of passive transfer has decreased, but it still lurks at 19.2 percent.
Respiratory disease diagnosis (Respiratory Health)
A pharyngeal swab is a new tool that can help diagnose bovine respiratory disease.
Feed heat-treated colostrum (Colostrum)
Recent work at Penn State indicates that feeding heat-treated colostrum improves immunoglobulin absorption.
