(KMAland) -- Having options is ideal, but often having various options can make decision-making difficult especially when it comes to calf and cow health management protocols. A.j. Tarpoff (tarp_off), associate professor and extension beef veterinarian at Kansas State University is here to discuss health management from both the cow and calf perspective and how investing in a health management is beneficial long-term.
“Get back to the basics when we start talking about good quality, helpful, strong robust immune system. So, it’s animal husbandry. Nutrition, okay. Comfort. Decrease stressors. All of these are aspects to be able to increase immune function. On top of that is maturity, okay. It takes actually to have a fully mature immune system can take up to two years for the bovine animal to kind of peak immune maturity.”
Beginning at birth, passive immunity is the short-term immunity established from the antibodies a calf receives through the cow’s colostrum. It is critical in the first 2 to 4 hours of a newborn calf’s life.
“When a calf is born, it actually has a permeable gut layer. And that allows the big cells like antibodies, white blood cells, and fats and all of the energy in vitamins and nutrients that the newborn calf needs. That permeable gut starts to seal rather quickly after birth. So really, within the first two to four hours of life, it is really critical to have the proper quality and quantity of colostrum that gets consumed by the calves as early as possible.”
Health management mitigation changes as calves age and become more vulnerable to risks like Bovine Respiratory Disease.
“So as cattle start to age, their passive immunity that they gain from their mothers starts to decline. This is where we have a susceptible animal. They are still on the cow. They are still out grazing, but we start to see this kind of transition through our immune function where it goes from the antibodies, they got from their mom soon after birth in colostrum to their body building their own natural immune response. And that’s that critical stage of that takeover for themselves to really start thriving on their own that there is potentially we can start to develop bovine raspatory disease. Now, one key aspect that we have at our disposal for management is utilization of vaccines. Vaccines are a challenge to the immune system for the animal to build its own immune response. So, it helps mimic natural infection where that animal can respond and already has premade memory to be able to respond in the wild if they come in contact with a wild strain of one of these pathogens.”
Stress can make us more vulnerable to sickness, and it’s just alike in cattle. Tarpoff says stress is related directly to immune function and strength.
“Now things that hurt the immune function at regardless of whether this is a mature cow or newborn calf regardless, I like to chalk it all up to stress. Stress takes a lot of different forms. Environmental stress. We have blizzards. We have cold stress. We have heat stress, okay. All of those are different kinds of stress on that animal nutritionally and physically. So, these are all things we try to manage to the best of our ability. We help modify the environment to help mitigate some of these stressors as much as possible. But then, we also focus on some of the things we can control. Our management programs, when we handle the animals and how we handle the animals.”
A comprehensive health management program is necessary for optimum cow and calf health. Visit the American Angus Association YouTube channel, Angus TV, to watch the full-length Cargill sponsored “Capitalizing on Calf Management,” Webinar and subscribe for more educational content.
