VIDEO 9 Getting to grips with cryptosporidium
Cryptosporidium scours in calves is one disease over the last ten years that has been steadily increasing on farms. It can cause huge issues, farmer frustration and in some farms high mortality where colostrum management is below par.
What is cryptosporidium and its symptoms?
It is a small thick-walled single-cell parasite. It causes diarrhea in young calves and now seems to be the leading cause of scour in calves between 1-4 weeks of age.
The species that affect calves is the cryptosporidium parvum. The clinical signs are scouring, dehydration, weight loss, and abdominal pain.
Some people say it will give a green watery scour. However, we must make a proper diagnosis using a fecal sample to see what agents are affecting the calf.
It is also zoonotic meaning it can infect humans, so great caution around personal hygiene should be taken when working with calves with cryptosporidium scour.
How does it spread?
It will survive for long periods of time in the environment. This means it can survive from year to year in housing. Adult cattle will also shed small amounts of these oocysts in their dung which can also start the cycle.
It is the calves once infected become parasite factories shedding billions of oocysts.
These oocysts once excreted are infective meaning they can infect calves that ingest them. It is said that as few 10 oocysts can cause disease and potentially can shed billions when they hatch out in the gut. Little wonder we then see more issues as calving progresses.
Like any disease, we see symptoms when the infection pressure becomes greater than what the immune system can cope with. So the calf that doesn’t receive adequate colostrum becomes the weak link in the chain.
It is a fecal-oral spreader so we must do everything we can to limit that spread. That is why hygiene is key to cryptosporidium control.
Treatments
I’ve yet to find something very effective for treatment. I have used them all. The most important thing though is these calves get plenty of oral fluids early and be kept on milk.
My experience is where milk is removed these calves can get very weak. While they may seem to scour worse on the milk they are still getting some nutrition and the milk is actually helping the gut to heal.
It’s all about prevention though
Controlling cryptosporidium
Watch the video above as I talk about the control of cryptosporidium.
The main pillars of control are still these two
- Good colostrum management
- Hygiene
So colostrum management must be the first place we start.
- High-quality colostrum or first milk. Remember the diet 2 weeks out from calving has a big impact on the quality of colostrum. Enough energy and protein is key to colostrum quality in my experience
- Give the colostrum quickly as the gut closes down and won’t absorb colostrum
- Give the right quantity which is up to 3.5- 4 litres in a 40kg dairy calf.
- Hygiene is critical with colostrum if your harvesting it for the dairy calf. This means for suckler cows that their udders are as clean as they can be. Suckler cows coming up to calving need more space and the cleanest bed on the farm
Then we work on hygiene to reduce the spread as in the video above.
It is important also to keep calves well fed and avoid the risk of rotavirus scours using vaccines on the dams.
There are several preventative strategies sold for cryptosporidium but only one licensed product. Halofuginone lactate can help as a prevention strategy to reduce the shedding of oocysts, it must be given to all calves for 7 days on a full stomach.
Watch the video above as I outline my top tips for control
Equipment must also be cleaned to prevent spread. I used hydrogen peroxide for this job in practice at 3% especially for high-risk implements like stomach tubes. They need to be rinsed thoroughly after disinfection.
Thought for the day
Doing the right thing isn’t always an easy thing. Let’s all keep doing the right thing and stop the spread of coronavirus.
If people feel I can help them in any way my email is info@tommythevet.ie
Big thanks to Nettex for their support in helping me make #50in50 happen