The future of your flock

The theme of this year’s conference was ‘The Next Level’, signifying the state-of-the-art material presented.

Australia is fortunate to have renowned livestock veterinarians who are happy to share their knowledge.

A presentation by keynote speaker Dr. Sam Barringer from the United States focused on respiratory diseases in calves and their diagnosis.

Like many of the conference presentations, Dr. Barringer built on the premise that respiratory disease in calves is caused by a combination of viruses and bacteria that work together to cause disease in calves.

Affected calves are likely to have predisposing factors such as inadequate colostrum intake and poor health, and environmental factors such as poor hygiene, overcrowding, poor air quality and lack of shelter.

Even if the calf recovers, an affected calf will generally have poor weight gain, an older age of maturity, an older age at first calving, reduced milk production, and a greater chance of premature culling.

The state-of-the-art technology presented was the use of ultrasound in the diagnosis of calves with respiratory diseases.

In general, calves showing the clinical signs of respiratory disease are seriously affected and if not treated in time, they will always suffer from their early disease.

Interestingly, ultrasound shows that some of the calves that appear clinically normal also have respiratory disease.

It would be fair to ask: why don’t those calves appear sick? The likely reason goes back to the fact that cattle were predators.

If they appeared sick, they were more likely to be hunted. Therefore, for survival, they had an evolutionary advantage in looking healthy for as long as possible.

With the technological advancements that producers now have access to, they are in a stronger position to make better decisions about the health of their herds.

Dr. Jeff Cave is a senior veterinary officer at Agriculture Victoria.