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Newborn Calves – Immune Status and Impact of Colostrum Feeding

Published: August 8, 2016
By: Phytobiotics; Julia Schmitt.
What’s important to know about the defense system of newborn calves?
The first weeks of life are a critical period for young calves as the immune system needs to develop and adapt and a huge load of pathogens is just waiting for a way to enter a weakened host organism.
 
Post-partum the immune protection of calves mainly relies on the innate unspecific part of the immune system and the passive immunity via maternal colostrum. The own adaptive acquired immune system is just slowly developing and is completed around week 8 up to week 12. The passive immune protection lasts for approx. 8 weeks with continuous decreasing power. Considering also the period of the development of the calf´s own adaptive antibody production a gap appears, when the sum of active and passive immunity in newborns is weakest and a high risk of disease arises. This phenomenon usually occurs around week 4 to 8 of life (Fig.1). In this phase calves are often just resettled into group housing units.
 
Since in livestock animals (pig, ruminant, horse) maternal immunoglobulins (Igs = antibodies) cannot pass the placental barrier, newborns rely on immunoglobulin supply for passive immunity development through maternal colostrum (Bachmann, Eichhorn and Heß, 1982). Also some vitamins (A, D, E) cannot pass the placenta and need to be absorbed by the newborn via its first milk (Quigley and Drewry, 1998). As the non selective macromolecule uptake from the intestine of newborns drops to a relatively low level 24 to 36 hours after birth (Kruse, 1983) and thus antibodies can be absorbed by the intestinal wall of newborns only for a short period of time, colostrum needs to be applied to the calf within the first hours after birth.  
Newborn Calves – Immune Status and Impact of Colostrum Feeding - Image 1
Fig. 1: Passive and own immunity of newborn calves
 
What to know about colostrum?
Colostrum is a valuable nutrient, energy supplier and immune competent substance. It contains higher dry matter, fat, protein, vitamin and mineral content, but less lactose levels as normal whole milk (Tab. 1).
Furthermore, higher amounts of Igs, white blood cells and growth factors are secreted (Godden, 2008; Quigley, J.D. and Drewry, I.J., 1998).
Various growth factors (e.g. IGF I/II, TGFα/ß, Insulin (Kolb, 2003)), sex hormones and cytokines can also be found in an increased level in Colostrum (Playford, Macdonald and Johnson, 2000). Growth factors particularly play a role in the development of the calf´s intestinal tract and improve cell proliferation on the mucosa wall, which presents specific receptors for these factors on its surface. This aspect is important for an efficient absorption, nutrient supply and growth of the calf (Kolb, 2003).
 
Tab. 1: Average ingredients of first colostrum and whole milk (adapted from Godden, 2008)
Newborn Calves – Immune Status and Impact of Colostrum Feeding - Image 2
Even if the intestinal barrier is already closed for Ig uptake, a continuous colostrum feeding still can have a positive influence on the development of the intestine (Playford, Macdonald and Johnson 2000).
 
For the classification of Ig supply in the calf, usually IgG levels - the most common Ig group of bovines - and /or total protein in blood serum can be detected. A blood IgG level of 10-15 g/l is known to have clear positive effects on the health status of calves. An ingestion of 150 to 200 g of IgG via colostrum within the first 24 hours post-partum is therefore recommended (Quigley and Drewry, 1998). For a practical on-farm test, colostrometer or refractometer allow to assess the IgG content in colostrum in a quick manner. In general colostrum containing levels above 50g Ig/l can be stated as good and useable for calf feeding (Sanftleben, 2003).
 
How to improve colostrum quality and supply?
The particular content of colostrum relies on several aspects. Only Colostrum from cows of the 3rd lactation or higher should be used in order to cover a wide range of antibodies. Volume of the first milking should not be too high – about 4.5l to 8l in order to keep the valuable substances in a concentrated volume (Knutzen et al., 2011 ; Sanftleben, 2003).
 
The dry period of the cow should at least be 62 days, milk should not flow before first milking and the latter should be as early as possible (9h after calving already 41% of original Ig content in colostrum is gone) (Knutzen et al., 2011). The diet in the transition period needs to be balanced and sufficient in nutrients in order to gain the highest amount of valuable nutrients in colostrum. Furthermore, vaccination management of cows needs to be considered. In general, the cow should gain a good health status before giving birth due to various reasons. In this matter it is worth noting that the cow on the one hand needs to manage her own defense system around birth (increased inflammatory processes can be detected in cows a.p. and p.p., (Gessner et al., 2013)). On the other hand the cow needs to provide good colostrum quality for her calf. In case of metabolic disorders and other health problems around birth, it becomes more stressful and challenging for the cows organism to manage those processes in an efficient way. Phytogenic feed additives can often provide benefits for the dairy cow in this critical phase.
 
In good managed dairy herds it is standard to freeze and store high quality colostrum in order to be prepared for newborn treatment.Within the first 2 hours after birth the calf should already receive sufficient amount of colostrum (2l for a 40kg calf) at a temperature of 39°C. After 24 hours the colostrum intake of a newborn calf should reach one-tenth of its body weight (Sanftleben, 2005). It goes without saying, that besides the right colostrum supply hygiene in the stable/pen, staff and equipment, general housing conditions etc. need to be well managed.
 
Economic interest?
Calves are the high performing animals of tomorrow! Nonetheless, still 5-15% of live born calves die within the first month (Kaske and Kunz, 2007). Thus, caring for a good management from birth onwards is the right investment in order to gain a valuable dairy cow or well growing fattening bull. In optimizing the newborn management and caring for healthy mothers with good colostrum quality, the risk and incidence of diseases can be reduced. Colostrum feeding does not only reduce mortality and morbidity in newborn calves, but also still lowers morbidity at six months age. Also performance of first lactation is higher in heifers which had a good colostrum supply post-partum (Eulenberger, 2010).
 
Additionally, the improved proliferation of intestinal cells sets the basic for a healthy and good working digestive tract, with increased nutrient absorption and improved weight development (Sanftleben, 2003).
Newborn Calves – Immune Status and Impact of Colostrum Feeding - Image 3
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Authors:
Julia Schmitt
Phytobiotics
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shubham123456
2 de febrero de 2017

Immune Status and Impact of Colostrum Feeding

The success of colostrum feeding to calves is built on four critical components:

Timing - How quickly the calf receives colostrum after birth.
Quantity - How much colostrum the calf receives.
Quality - The concentration of immunoglobulins in the colostrum.
Cleanliness - The levels of pathogens in the colostrum.

aledin abdu
25 de noviembre de 2016

Colostrum is one of the most important ways to prevent calves from disease. But i have one doubt, whether it is recommended to feed colostrum for calves that suckled from a diseased mother.

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