Detect coccidiosis before it causes scour in autumn calves

Detecting and treating coccidiosis in beef calves before it causes scour can avoid damage to the gut and prevent ongoing impacts to performance, including reduced weaning weights.
calendar icon 6 September 2020
clock icon 3 minute read

Emily Postlethwaite, from Marches Veterinary Group, explains calves pick up coccidiosis oocysts readily from their environment, these sit in the gut and multiply rapidly, eventually damaging and rupturing the gut wall, before being released back out via faeces.

“Grey pasty scour with blood is a clear sign of severe coccidiosis infection. However, it’s important to identify and treat coccidiosis in a group of calves before it gets to this stage,” she says.

“If calves are scouring, there has already been significant damage to the gut wall, which can take a long time to recover from, makes them susceptible to further problems and can be fatal in the worst cases.

“Even if they aren’t scouring, coccidiosis infection can reduce calves’ ability to absorb nutrients, which leads to poor growth rates, ultimately reducing weaning weights.”

Emily recommends that regularly weighing calves is the ideal approach to pinpoint underperformance as early as possible, to be able to investigate the cause and treat as needed before clinical symptoms are seen, such as scouring.

“An alternative less labour-intensive approach is to take regular dung samples from around 10 percent of the calves in a group and send these to the vet for analysis. By including speciation in the analysis, in addition to an oocyst count, it is possible to detect whether disease causing parasitic infections are impacting calf growth and performance.”

If pathogenic coccidiosis oocysts are detected, it is essential to treat the whole group, as even those not yet showing signs are likely to have picked up oocysts from the environment.

“A toltrazuril drench such as Baycox provides the longest lasting treatment, as it kills the oocysts at all stages, rather than just stopping their development, making it the best way to reduce the oocyst count and disease pressure on the herd over time,” says Emily.

She explains that although coccidiosis can survive in the environment for over a year, calves are most vulnerable to infection when they are between four and 12 weeks old, following which animals will generally develop an immunity to future infection. Understanding the environmental challenge and high risk periods are paramount.

“Autumn calving marks the beginning of a high-risk time, especially for herds with a protracted calving period, as younger calves can pick up coccidiosis oocysts that have been shed by older calves.

“Careful management to manage the numbers of oocysts in the environment can also reduce risk,” she says.

For indoor calving herds Emily recommends raising of water troughs to avoid faecal contamination, regular mucking out and cleaning with a disinfectant that is known to have coccidiocidal properties to kill oocysts. Outdoors, she suggests fencing off water courses or ponds to prevent access to potentially contaminated water.

“You also need to be avoiding poaching around bale feeders and water troughs to reduce the build-up of coccidiosis oocysts in wet areas.

“If we have a wet autumn, the infection risk will further increase, as the environment will be more favourable for the oocysts to spread from calf to calf. Regardless of weather, it is important to maintain a close eye on calf performance and investigate if growth rates are not as expected.”

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