coursera week 7 DAIRY PRODUCTION AND MANAGEMENT

When you complete this module, you will be able to:
1. Recognize important disease prevention practices and understand approaches to dairy

herd health programs.
2. Understand principles of recognizing calving problems and appropriately apply proper

methods of correcting calving issues and associated diseases.
3. Apply management practices to ensure calf survival upon calving and employ systematic

methods for early recognition of calf diseases.
4. Recognize challenges of disease in the cow herd and be able to implement a systematic

method to readily identify sick or at risk cows.
5. Understand the rationale for and organization of protocols for treating sick cows.
6. Verbalize important issues related to antibiotic usage and implications on food production

practices.
7. Appreciate the importance of preventive disease practices and their application to a dairy

farm.
8. Recognize the importance of good nutrition in maintaining cow health and performance

and integrate application of various disease prevention practices discussed to provide an
environment to minimize health issues on the dairy herd.
9. Glossary and Conversion Matrix in English
10.
11. Glossary
12. Antibiotic- Therapeutic compound used to kill or inhibit bacterial growth in treating a
13.
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disease condition
Antibiotic residue - Residual amount of an antibiotic compound or its derivative left in
milk or meat of a treated animal. This is not related to resistance.
Antibiotic resistance - Spontaneous, induced or acquired mutation in bacterial genes
resulting in one or more antibiotic agents no longer being effective in killing or inhibiting
bacterial growth. This process limits the use of antibiotics in treating disease in humans
and animals.
Biocontainment- Series of management practices used to minimize the transfer of
disease agents among animal groups or areas of the farm
Biosecurity - Series of management practices used to prevent introduction of infectious
agents or other disease agents entry to a farm
Blemish - A localized lesion (scar tissue) within muscle tissue resulting from an injected
compound inducing an inflammatory reaction. An undesired occurrence in meat products
for consumption often resulting from inappropriate administration of therapeutic agents.


18. Brucellosis - Infectious disease caused by Brucella abortus that infects cattle and causes

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reproductive losses. A zoonotic disease that can be transmitted to humans through milk or
animal contact
Colostrum - Unique secretion from the mammary when first initiating lactation.
Typically contains higher concentrations of energy, protein, minerals and
immunoglobulins
Clinical disease - Abnormal health condition where clinical signs shown by affected
animal will be specific to a given insult or cause
Dehydration - Disease process resulting from a loss of water from the body, typically
associated with diarrhea conditions
Dystocia - Difficult calving (birthing) process

Homeostasis - Metabolic regulatory process typically having two counter regulatory
hormones to control stability of a given nutrient (e.g., calcium, glucose)
Immunoglobulins - Antibodies formed by the immune system to protect against bacterial
or viral pathogens
Intramuscular - Pertaining to injections administered within muscle tissue
Intravenous -Pertaining to injections administered within a peripheral vein
Mastitis - Infectious disease of the mammary gland (udder)
Meconium - First fecal matter in the lower colon of the calf when it is born
Metabolic diseases - Unique disease conditions of cows resulting from some altered
process of controlling key nutrients such as glucose (i.e., ketosis), calcium (i.e., milk
fever, hypocalcemia) or lipids (i.e., hepatic lipidosis or fatty liver)
Metaphylactic - Antibiotics administered to animals at risk for disease at therapeutic
levels.
Metritis - Infectious disease of the uterus, typically occurs following calving
Pneumonia - Infectious disease process of the lungs (i.e., respiratory disease)
Postparturient or postcalving - Referring to events occurring after the time of calving,
typically the first few weeks following calving when cows are predisposed to disease
events
Refractometer - Instrument used to evaluate total protein content of serum, measures
diffraction of light
Scours - Infectious disease process characterized by diarrhea
Subclinical disease - Abnormal health condition where non-specific clinical signs are
present, typically poor performance, increased disease susceptibility, decreased efficiency
Subcutaneous - Pertaining to injections administered under the skin
Subtherapeutic - Antibiotic being provided at a low level to promote growth or control
disease. This practice is eliminating in an effort to reduce possibility of antibiotic
resistance
Transfaunation - Process by which rumen fluid from a healthy cow is transferred to a
sick cow to restimulate the bacterial population of the rumen
Transition period - Time frame typically defined as 4 weeks prior to calving through 4

weeks following calving. Typically associated with greatest risk for disease of the cow
Tuberculosis - Infectious disease caused by the bacteria Mycobacterium bovis. A
zoonotic disease that can be found in cattle and transmitted to humans through drinking
of milk


42. Withdrawl time - Defined period of time following the last administration of an

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antibiotic or other therapeutic compound before milk or meat from the treated animal can
enter the food chain
Zoonotic disease - An infectious disease that can be transmitted from animals to humans
Conversion Matrix
1 kg = 2.2 lbs
1 ppm = 1 mg/kg
1 ppm = 1000 ppb
Hello, my name is Dr. Robert Van Saun and I am a professor of Veterinary Science and

an extension veterinarian at Pennsylvania State University.
I will be your instructor for
the metabolic diseases and herd health section of this course.
Today's topic will introduce this section and
describe approaches by which we can keep cows healthy.
Our goal for this video is to address the concept of biosecurity as it applies to
farms and to understand how herd health programs have changed
in addressing changes in the dairy industry.
As you might imagine, my goal as a veterinarian is to keep cows healthy and
as free of disease as possible.
However, infectious pathogens are invariably present in any environment,
whether it be a day care facility, a school, or office.
So how do we keep groups of cows healthy?
Let's first understand the concepts of biosecurity and
biocontainment as it relates to disease risks.
The role of biosecurity became very prominent during the outbreak of foot and
mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001, as seen in these pictures.
Biosecurity is defined as a series of management practices designed to
minimize or prevent importation of infectious agents.
Similarly, biocontainment uses the same methods shown here
to prevent disease spread within the farm.
Unfortunately we cannot achieve a perfect state of biosecurity
by strict isolation of our farms from all their inputs.
We need to address specific risks to biosecurity for a given farm.
This means there is no one size fits all to farm biosecurity.
Programs to address biosecurity and biocontainment need to focus on assessing
risk potential from various sources for a given farm.
In this diagram, we can see how susceptible animals on
the farm could be exposed to new infectious agents,
via various farm inputs or visitors to the farm.

Direct animal contact as well as indirect transmission through water,
feed, pasture or equipment can result in new infections.
Biosecurity practices should be tailored to certain risks on a given farm
based on their potential inputs, farm interactions, and products sold.
Biosecurity practices are often overlooked once the headlines from some disease
outbreak have passed, but it's practices are essential
as we move through the 21st century in caring for our dairy herds.


86. Let's see how this relates to the application to the dairy
87. herd health programs.
88. Let's first take a look at the history of dairy herd health programs.
89. If we think back to the first half of the 20th century, all societies
90. were more agriculturally based, with many rural families having the backyard cow,
91. pig and chickens to help produce food for the family.
92. During this time, productive efficiency was low, and
93. there were no vaccines or antibiotics to treat sick cows.
94. Veterinary medicine was in its infancy, in treating and understanding disease.
95. In the US the initial focus of cow health programs was initiated
96. by the federal government in wanting to eliminate these two diseases,
97. brucellosis and tuberculosis, that could be passed in milk.
98. These diseases can be transmitted to humans, meaning they are zoonotic.
99. Many countries are still struggling to eliminate these diseases.
100.
This table provides the different biosecurity practices that were
101.
used to help eliminate these two diseases in the US.
102.
Starting in the late 1940s, the post war human population needed to be fed,
103.

and financial rewards were being realized from selling animal based food

products.
104.
Emphasis on herd health programs was on the veterinary practitioner diagnosing
and
105.
treating individual cows.
106.
Antibiotics became available as well as improved diagnostic capabilities.
107.
In the mid to late 1960s,
108.
the human population continued to increase and become more distanced from
109.
direct agricultural production in most industrialized countries.
110.
Farms continued to become larger and needed to be more efficient,
111.
thus a critical need for a systematic approach in maintaining cow health.
112.
An initial approach to organized herd health programs was focused on disease
113.
diagnosis and treatment.
114.
The primary objective was to address individual
115.
cow issues that ultimately would result in improved overall herd health.
116.
This herd health approach as shown here,

117.
did not specifically address productivity or economic health of the farm.
118.
Since the late 1980s, there has been a progressive shift or
119.
evolution in our herd health program focus.
120.
To not only address specific animal health issues, but evaluating
121.
the efficiency of production and more on preventative health approaches.
122.
In this herd health approach, there is a critical need to constantly evaluate
123.
the current state of the herd, compare to industry standards or
124.
her goals, then make informed decisions about management changes for
improvement.
125.
The continuation of the process, as shown in this diagram,
126.
requires further evaluation following specific actions and
127.
reassessment to determine if improvement has been made.
128.
This is the cycle of monitoring and evaluation.


129.
130.

As we have improved our understanding of animal health and disease risk,
coupled with farms becoming larger, more sophisticated and highly productive,

our
herd health programs required attention to issues beyond just cow disease.
We can see in this listing areas of disease monitoring and
milking machine function are being used to better address early disease diagnosis.
Understanding the role of nutrition and
the environment has become a critical factor in addressing disease prevention.
A veterinary colleague captured the essence of this approach to herd health
in asking this question.
We know cows that become sick can recover, but
they may have residual issues such as greater risk for lower milk production.
Poor reproductive performance resulting in greater risk for
being culled in the lactation in which they were sick.
Thus our focus should be on preventing cows from ever becoming sick or broken.
As we progress through this section of the course, we will address these
highlighted
144.
components of a preventative medicine approached to herd health programs.
145.
Program components such as milking system management, reproduction,
146.
heifer development and nutrition will be addressed in other course sections.
147.
To finish our discussion today, I have provided some reading materials found at
148.
these websites and will provide an additional handout.
149.
I'm looking forward to our next discussion.

150.
Our next discussion will address health management of the calving cow,
151.
which is the single most stressful event in a cow's life
131.
132.
133.
134.
135.
136.
137.
138.
139.
140.
141.
142.
143.

]
Hello, my name is Dr. Robert Van Saun and I am a professor of Veterinary Science and
an extension veterinarian at Pennsylvania State University.
I will be your instructor for
the metabolic diseases and herd health section of this course.
Today's topic will introduce this section and
describe approaches by which we can keep cows healthy.
Our goal for this video is to address the concept of biosecurity as it applies to
farms and to understand how herd health programs have changed
in addressing changes in the dairy industry.
As you might imagine, my goal as a veterinarian is to keep cows healthy and
as free of disease as possible.

However, infectious pathogens are invariably present in any environment,
whether it be a day care facility, a school, or office.
So how do we keep groups of cows healthy?
Let's first understand the concepts of biosecurity and
biocontainment as it relates to disease risks.
The role of biosecurity became very prominent during the outbreak of foot and
mouth disease in the United Kingdom in 2001, as seen in these pictures.


Biosecurity is defined as a series of management practices designed to
minimize or prevent importation of infectious agents.
Similarly, biocontainment uses the same methods shown here
to prevent disease spread within the farm.
Unfortunately we cannot achieve a perfect state of biosecurity
by strict isolation of our farms from all their inputs.
We need to address specific risks to biosecurity for a given farm.
This means there is no one size fits all to farm biosecurity.
Programs to address biosecurity and biocontainment need to focus on assessing
risk potential from various sources for a given farm.
In this diagram, we can see how susceptible animals on
the farm could be exposed to new infectious agents,
via various farm inputs or visitors to the farm.
Direct animal contact as well as indirect transmission through water,
feed, pasture or equipment can result in new infections.
Biosecurity practices should be tailored to certain risks on a given farm
based on their potential inputs, farm interactions, and products sold.
Biosecurity practices are often overlooked once the headlines from some disease
outbreak have passed, but it's practices are essential
as we move through the 21st century in caring for our dairy herds.
Let's see how this relates to the application to the dairy

herd health programs.
Let's first take a look at the history of dairy herd health programs.
If we think back to the first half of the 20th century, all societies
were more agriculturally based, with many rural families having the backyard cow,
pig and chickens to help produce food for the family.
During this time, productive efficiency was low, and
there were no vaccines or antibiotics to treat sick cows.
Veterinary medicine was in its infancy, in treating and understanding disease.
In the US the initial focus of cow health programs was initiated
by the federal government in wanting to eliminate these two diseases,
brucellosis and tuberculosis, that could be passed in milk.
These diseases can be transmitted to humans, meaning they are zoonotic.
Many countries are still struggling to eliminate these diseases.
This table provides the different biosecurity practices that were
used to help eliminate these two diseases in the US.
Starting in the late 1940s, the post war human population needed to be fed,
and financial rewards were being realized from selling animal based food products.
Emphasis on herd health programs was on the veterinary practitioner diagnosing and
treating individual cows.
Antibiotics became available as well as improved diagnostic capabilities.
In the mid to late 1960s,
the human population continued to increase and become more distanced from
direct agricultural production in most industrialized countries.
Farms continued to become larger and needed to be more efficient,
thus a critical need for a systematic approach in maintaining cow health.


An initial approach to organized herd health programs was focused on disease
diagnosis and treatment.
The primary objective was to address individual

cow issues that ultimately would result in improved overall herd health.
This herd health approach as shown here,
did not specifically address productivity or economic health of the farm.
Since the late 1980s, there has been a progressive shift or
evolution in our herd health program focus.
To not only address specific animal health issues, but evaluating
the efficiency of production and more on preventative health approaches.
In this herd health approach, there is a critical need to constantly evaluate
the current state of the herd, compare to industry standards or
her goals, then make informed decisions about management changes for improvement.
The continuation of the process, as shown in this diagram,
requires further evaluation following specific actions and
reassessment to determine if improvement has been made.
This is the cycle of monitoring and evaluation.
As we have improved our understanding of animal health and disease risk,
coupled with farms becoming larger, more sophisticated and highly productive, our
herd health programs required attention to issues beyond just cow disease.
We can see in this listing areas of disease monitoring and
milking machine function are being used to better address early disease diagnosis.
Understanding the role of nutrition and
the environment has become a critical factor in addressing disease prevention.
A veterinary colleague captured the essence of this approach to herd health
in asking this question.
We know cows that become sick can recover, but
they may have residual issues such as greater risk for lower milk production.
Poor reproductive performance resulting in greater risk for
being culled in the lactation in which they were sick.
Thus our focus should be on preventing cows from ever becoming sick or broken.
As we progress through this section of the course, we will address these highlighted
components of a preventative medicine approached to herd health programs.

Program components such as milking system management, reproduction,
heifer development and nutrition will be addressed in other course sections.
To finish our discussion today, I have provided some reading materials found at
these websites and will provide an additional handout.
I'm looking forward to our next discussion.
Our next discussion will address health management of the calving cow,
which is the single most stressful event in a cow's life
Welcome back to our second discussion in the Herd health section.
I'm Dr. Robert Van Saun and today we'll be discussing the single most
significant time in a cows life cycle in its relationship to disease.
Today's objectives are to learn the normal stages of calving,
followed by an understanding of how to properly intervene when necessary.


The time of calving is the final culmination in the nine month
reproductive process.
Goals of any farm relative to working with a calving cow are shown here.
The calving process is the single, most challenging time for
the cow from a health and production perspective.
As was discussed in the pre-part of nutritional management discussion with Dr.
Vargo, the late, pregnant cow must undergo significant metabolic
adjustments to initiate lactation leading to increased risk for
a variety of metabolic and infectious diseases.
This is in addition to the physical challenge of delivering
a 90 to 95 pound calf for a Holstein cow.
Calving occurs over a period of time ranging from 3
to more than 24 hours depending upon cow age.
This listing shows the three stages of calving.
The normal time frame for Stage 1 is between 2 to 6 hours.
Stage 2, 1 to 2 hours, possibly 3 with heifers.

And 1 to 8 hours for Stage 3.
Stage 1 is essentially the process of preparing the birth canal
in positioning the calf for proper delivery.
Ligaments around the pelvic area will loosen,
thus allowing more give to deliver the calf.
Other physical signs include swelling of the vulva and
plumping of the teats as they fill with colostrum.
Cows will usually become restless and isolate themselves from others.
One should observe these cows about every four hours to monitor progress.
During this time, the first water sac will protrude out and regress,
as it uses hydraulic pressure to expand that cervix and birth canal.
It is important not to open the sac too early preventing its dilation actions.
Stage 2 is the physical delivery of the calf through the birth canal.
Ideally cows should be placed in individual maternity pens that are clean,
dry and have good footing and
restraint methods available should she need some intervention.
Abdominal contractions will be obvious in addition to frequent
uterine contractions to move that fetus through the canal.
Cows will typically lie down to complete the birthing process.
Calf delivery is completed when either the hips or
shoulders are passed through the birth canal depending upon the presentation.
Stage 3 of calving is the process where the placenta detaches from the uterine
connections and is released.
Now that we understand how a normal calving should proceed,
how do we determine when to intervene?
It is important to remember that cows can calve on their own very well and
only occasionally will need help.
We don't want to intervene too quickly as this will increase the risk for
birth canal damage, greater contamination of the uterus and injury to that calf.
Farm managers should work with their veterinarian to develop appropriate

Standard Operating Procedures or SOP in defining steps any worker should
complete in deciding when to intervene and how to assess and correct the situation.
Here are three key indicators of when you should decide to examine or assist a cow.
Listed here are three more criteria for deciding if you should intervene.
A distressed calf will often appear with a yellow-brown
stain due to premature release of meconium during birthing.
Meconium is that first feces passed from the calf when born.
A lack of oxygen during birthing results in contraction of that lower colon,
thus passing the meconium and staining the calf.
Potential causes of dystocia are shown here,
the first two will have some limitations and options for
corrections in often require cesarean surgery to deliver the calf.
Some disease is such a uterine torsion or twisting, or
hypocalcemia can be corrected and birthing allowed to continue.
The one where some practice in understanding corrective measures is
fetal malposition.
This is where the fetus is not in a correct presentation to allow delivery.
This might mean a head is back or one or two legs are flexed or
any combinations of these.
Cows attempting to deliver twins could be a real challenge
in determining which legs belong to which calf.
Okay, so, let's say the cow or heifer is taking too long in delivering the calf.
What steps should we take to intervene appropriately?
The first step in assessing a dystocia case is to properly restrain
the cow to prevent injury to her, or assistance providers.
Next, you want to tie the tail out of the way, but not to a solid object,
such as the barn.
Clean the perineum thoroughly and

use clean sleeves to protect yourself and the cow.
The next step is to insert your arm to perform a pelvic exam and
reach the calf to determine position.
The best way to determine a calf presentation, head or
tail first, is to identify the proper body part.
If not present, then one can use the legs to determine presentation.
Front and
hind limbs bend in different directions, moving from the hoof up the leg.
Once you have determined the calf presentation,
you will extend the two front or hind legs.
To extend the legs, one will need to use obstetrical chains.
Chains need to be applied correctly to prevent injury to the calf's leg
during the pull.
A single loop just above the hoof could traumatically remove the hoof or
break a leg bone.
A double half hit should be applied to distribute the tension along the leg.
Once the chains are properly placed,
gentle tension should be applied to move the calf into position.


Once the calf is engaged in the pelvis, some assessment of fetal size, and
ability to deliver the calf through the birth canal is made.
Tension on the chains to pull the calf should be
coordinated with the cow's uterine contraction.
Once the legs are protruding, pull downward at
a 45 degree angle to facilitate the natural contour of the birthing canal.
If the pull is hard, one can alternate pulling on individual legs
to help reduce the size of the shoulders as they pass through the pelvis.
Similarly, one can twist the calf 45 degrees
to take advantage of oblong nature of the pelvic opening.

There is much more detail in becoming proficient in correcting
fetal malposition.
But, we cannot cover each situation here.
I encourage you to work with your veterinarian, or
other appropriate person to gain further instruction.
Once the calf has been delivered, you should examine the cow to assess if there
is a second calf or some injury or damage to the birth canal.
One should also keep records on the calving process,
termed the Dystocia Score, for all cows to identify problem cows or heifers.
This is part of that record keeping process of preventative
Herd health programs, as previously discussed.
Potential disease issues that could occur at the time of calving, or
immediately afterwards, are shown here.
Uterine torsion is a twisting of the birth canal,
preventing the calf from being passed through.
This could be corrected manually in some cases.
Or by proper rolling of the cow.
In severe cases, a cesarean surgery may be necessary.
In manipulating the calf within the birth canal, the uterus or
vaginal vault might tear.
And have excessive bleeding.
One can fill a clean sleeve with ice and
insert it into the birth canal to reduce inflammation and
swelling until the veterinarian can assess the severity of trauma or bleeding.
Another critical event requiring veterinary intervention is
a uterine prolapse.
This is where the uterus is pushed out of the birth canal and turns inside out.
The uterus will need to be thoroughly cleaned and carefully replaced.
Depending upon the duration and the difficulty of a calving,
there may be secondary damage to nerves passing along the pelvis.

This may result in muscle weakness, or inability to stand, or
control of the hind legs.
Musculoskeletal injuries may result from the cow falling due to poor footing,
nerve damage or Hypocalcemia.
One of the most significant metabolic diseases of dairy cattle
is Hypocalcemia or what is commonly termed milk fever.


This disease results from the cow's inability to replace the calcium loss via
colostrum precipitating a critically low blood calcium concentration.
Clinical milk fever cows will be down, cold and depressed.
Older cows are more commonly affected typically just prior to calving through
72 hours postpartum.
More recently, a condition term, sub-clinical Hypocalcemia has been defined
as blood calcium concentration blood normal less then two millimoles per liter
or less then eight milligrams per deciliter but
above a concentration that would induce clinical signs.
These cows will be weak and prone to slipping or falling.
Hypocalcemia is considered a gateway disease as it is often associated with
other diseases such as retained fetal membranes, uterine prolapse,
mastitis and other metabolic diseases.
Dietary prevention of Hypocalcemia has been intensively studied for
more than 60 years.
In spite of all of this research,
disturbed calcium homeostasis remains a significant problem for calving cows.
Two documented methods of altering the prepartum diet for
at least 14 days prior to calving have been used to prevent Hypocalcemia.
Calcium supplementation at the time of calving or immediately afterwards via
boluses or drench has been used on many farms to minimize calcium related issues.
In this session,

we have covered much material addressing critical issues of the calving cow.
Our objectives were related to understanding the normal and
abnormal birthing process, and how to properly intervene.
We further discussed potential disease consequences of the calving process and
highlighted the importance of calcium homeostasis.
To this point, we have ignored management of the newborn calf.
This will be our next discussion session in this course section.
Hello again. I'm Dr. Robert Van Saun
Extension Veterinary with Penn State University.
Our previous discussion focused on
the calving process and associated diseases of the cow.
Today's topic we'll address the newborn calf and focus
on identifying disease early
for more timely intervention.
Our lesson objectives are to become familiar with
the essential calf care practices at the time of
birth and to find
a systematic health evaluation process
and recognizing calf disease.
Once the calf is passed through the birth canal,
we immediately need to focus on ensuring the mouth
and nose are clear of
mucous allowing the calf to breathe.


Proper inflation of the lungs is essential for
calf's survival and to
minimize future respiratory problems.
There are a number of methods shown here to
stimulate good deep breaths by the calf.

In the past we would have placed
the calf in a hanging position such as over
a fence as shown here in an effort to clear
the mucus from the respiratory tract, nose and mouth.
However, this approach is no longer
recommended as in this inverted position
all the abdominal organs press against
the diaphragm and limit
the lungs ability to inflate fully.
We now recommend keeping the calf in
a sternal position as shown
here and stimulate the breathing process.
Once we have the calf breathing
adequately we need to assess
the calf's status especially if there were
any problems or delays during the birthing process.
Remember, from our previous discussion about meconium
staining being an indicator of
calf distressed or in calving.
This chart compares various physical exam findings
of the normal and
the compromise calf at birth and suggested
interventions to ensure survival of the compromised calf.
For each of these measures the compromise calf will have
a lower value all indicating
a serious lack of oxygen during the birthing process.
Compromise calves will require
more tender loving care and should
be forced fed colostrum to
ensure adequate passive transfer.

Following birth and initiating breathing,
the single most important event in
a calf's life especially in reference to
disease prevention is the consumption of
high-quality colostrum in sufficient amounts.
Other lessons in this course will address
specifics of colostrum feeding practices.
After colostrum feeding
another important disease practice is dipping
of the navel in seven percent iodine
or similar disinfecting agent.


This practices to minimize risk of
environmental pathogens moving up
the umbilicus into the calf's body
and establishing an infection.
It is best to actually dip the navel in
the iodine solution to ensure
proper disinfection and drying.
It is not recommended to just spray the umbilicus
as this does not provide
complete coverage as shown in this photo.
Between two and seven days of life
one could collect a blood sample from the calf and
either directly measure
immunoglobulin concentration or indirectly
assess colostrum absorption by
measuring total protein in serum.
Total protein is easily measured

with a refractometer and a drop of serum.
Interpreting the results are shown in this table.
Large calf raising operations require
this test before they accept the calf as
they know disease risk is highly
associated with passive immunity status.
This pie chart comes from
the national animal health monitoring survey
showing the most common diseases for
nursing or wet calf losses.
As we see in this data,
diarrhea or what's termed scours is the primary problem.
Respiratory disease or pneumonia is next and together,
they account for nearly 80 percent of young calf losses.
So how serious of
a problem are nursing calf losses in dairy herds?
Remember, our first discussion related to
monitoring and assessing the farm situation.
Here in the US,
average mortality rate for
heifer calves prior to weaning has not changed
much in nearly 20 years
averaging approximately eight percent.
We also noticed that over
this time period less calves are born alive.
However, this metric is highly variable by
season of the year as well as between herds.
Better herds can maintain less
than a one percent calf loss,

whereas problem herds may experience as
highest 30 percent losses are more.
What are the challenges that lead to calf disease?
These series of graphs
simply demonstrate the relationship between
calf resistance and pathogen
challenge resulting in clinical disease.
The calf's resistance is reduced with birthing trauma,
inadequate or poor colostrum feeding,
poor nutrition and environmental cold or heat stress.
Disease challenge can be increased with
poor housing conditions and
high pathogen exposure from cows,
other calves or a contaminated environment.
When both issues occur at once,
then we have a large disease outbreak.
Other than the obvious calf death losses,
why should we be concerned with disease rates in calves?
Research shows long-term effects
of respiratory disease in calves in contrast
to no documented long-lasting effects for scours.
These data collectively suggests we
need to identify scours early to prevent
death loss and work to prevent
respiratory disease to minimize long-term issues.
As we discussed in our calving management lesson,
a standardized operating procedure or SOP should be
constructed to ensure consistent and efficient methods
are used to evaluate calves for a disease.

Dr. Sheila McGuirk at
the University of Wisconsin Madison developed
a systematic scoring system to evaluate calves for
disease risk and determining
which calves should be treated.
This approach is based on
a validated visual criteria that facilitates
a repeatable evaluation process of
calf health relative to respiratory disease and scours.
Assessment of respiratory disease is evaluated
by a scoring system addressing body temperature,
nasal discharge, cough status and eyes or ears scores.
Specific criteria are categorized into
a simplified zero to three scale as shown in this table.
One would add up the score for
each parameter for a total respiratory score.
If the total score is three or less,


nothing is done to the calf.
If the score is four then the calf should
be more closely monitored for potential problems.
If the score is five or greater,
then some defined treatment protocols
should be initiated.
Diarrhoea or scours would be
evaluated by a fecal scoring system as shown here.
Scores of two or three should
receive some defined treatment.
Intensity of treatment for scours will

depend upon the hydration status of the calf.
With diarrhoea the calf is losing
water faster than it is taking water in.
This scale shows the range of body water loss
or dehydration and associated
clinical presentation of the calf.
As you can see,
it does not take excessive water loss,
just about 12 percent
before severe disease and death may occur.
Severity of dehydration will dictate
the amount of electrolytes in fluids to be
administered and whether they can
be given orally or intravenously.
So how do we keep calves healthy?
We need to think back to the balance between
resistance and challenge of disease.
We can raise the calf's resistance through
good colostrum, nutrition and vaccination.
Secondarily, we can reduce the pathogen challenge
through good sanitation and biosecurity practices.
Here are some fundamental
bio-security practices we could use in
managing calves to reduce
pathogen exposure to prevent disease.
Ultimately, to achieve
the lowest potential disease risk in our calves,
we would want to increase the resistance at
the same time reduce the challenge as shown here.
Ultimately, this combination will result in

the lowest calf disease risk for the farm.
We have covered a wide range of topics in
addressing proper calf care to ensure survival
following birth as well as
underlying causes of calfhood disease and


methods to appropriately recognize
disease early for better response to intervention.
Our next lesson will focus on
disease recognition and prevention in the cow herd.
Welcome back.
I'm Robert Van Saun, extension veterinarian with Penn State University.
In a previous topic we addressed specific calving related diseases.
Our topic today will focus on common postpartum diseases and
how to identify sick cows earlier.
Thus allowing for more timely intervention with the intent for a speedy recovery.
The first three to five weeks following calving is
the second half of what is termed the transition period.
The significance of this eight to ten week period surrounding calving is
the metabolic modifications necessary for
the cow to adapt from her condition of pregnancy to one of lactation.
Unfortunately, this transition does not go well for more than 50% of cows, and thus
the period immediately after calving is a focal point for addressing disease issues.
As can be seen in this graphic, most of the common disease concerns of cows
occur at the time of calving and within the first month of lactation.
Which means there is a great potential for adversely affecting milk yield for
the lactation.
Much research has occurred over the past decades in an effort to determine
underpinning issues of disease risk for transition cows.

Post-parturition or after-calving diseases are often termed
metabolic diseases, due to the association with abnormal or
perturbed metabolic adaptations during transition.
This graph compares required amounts of key metabolic nutrients,
namely glucose, amino acids, fatty acids, and calcium,
either in the last two weeks of pregnancy or during the first week of lactation.
If the cow is unable to maintain metabolic stability or homeostasis with these
key nutrients, then specific metabolic disorders such as ketosis,
immune dysfunction, hepatic lipidosis, or
fatty infiltration of the liver, and hypocalcemia can occur.
It should be recognized that these diseases are not independent of
each other.
And often, one disease condition predisposes to another leading
to cows experiencing multiple disease events.
In addition to metabolic derangements that occur around the time of calving.
It has been well documented that the cow's immune response,
both the specific and non-specific branches, is compromised some
weeks prior to calving through three to four weeks post-calving.
This situation increases the cow's susceptibility to mastitis,
an infection of the utter, metritis, an infection of the uterus,
and any other infectious disease process during the transition period.
A key concern for transition cows relative to disease risk is the feed


intake decline occurring around the time of calving.
During the transition period, as shown in these graphs, intake drops a week or
two prior to calving, is at its lowest point the day of calving,
then slowly increases over the early lactation period.
Research has focused on this prepartum decline in intake
as an important factor predisposing to metabolic diseases.

The challenge here is that many other factors beyond nutrition
can influence intake, making a solution to this problem very challenging.
Another critical factor recognized to contribute to increased metabolic disease
susceptibility is the cow's body condition score during the dry period and
into early lactation.
Cows having excess body condition, defined as a score of four or greater
on a five point scale, were at greater risk for postpartum metabolic disease.
Heavier body condition score cows have a greater decline in
intake prior to calving.
Body condition scoring has been addressed in other lessons.
I have provided a link at the end of this video for a presentation on how to learn
to body condition score cows if you are not familiar with the method.
The potential impact of intake is shown in these data from two different feeding
studies completed at Penn State.
Of all cows in the study, we identified those cows have no problems
during transition and compared pre and postpartum intake with cows
that had been diagnosed with ketosis in the postpartum period.
You can see, even before the cows became sick,
their prepartum intake declined rapidly in the weeks prior to calving.
In the post-calving period, there was a significant difference in feed intake.
Cows with ketosis consumed 500 pounds of dry matter less over
a five week period compared to healthy cows.
This loss of feed intake would be equivalent to the cow losing either
0.9 score of body condition or
1,030 pounds less milk yield over this period.
So why are we concerned about the diseases associated with transition?
Mainly because these diseases are very costly to the producer.
The early lactation cow is the most efficient milk producer and
any disease process will reduce milk yield per day and per the full lactation.
Additionally there are animal-specific losses, as indicated here.

More recently, research has described another form of postpartum diseases.
The diseases we've been describing so far have specific
clinical signs shown by the affected cows and are termed clinical disease.
In contrast, a lesser form of the same disease
is described as being subclinical manifestation of the disease process.
Subclinical disease is more prevalent within the population and
even though it does not produce the observable clinical signs in the animal,
it is more significant to the farm.
Subclinical disease occurs when the underlying derangement is not sufficient
to cause clinical disease manifestations, but


is sufficient to induce performance inefficiencies.
Subclinical disease is often associated with decreased feed efficiency, reduced
reproduction, and impaired immune function leading to greater disease susceptibility.
This chart provides a summary of estimated costs associated with clinical and
subclinical forms of common postpartum diseases.
You can see that although subclinical diseases have lower perceived costs,
their financial impact on the farm is greater as a result of their
greater prevalence compared to clinical diseases.
As we discussed in our first lesson of this course section, one needs to compare
current herd performance to industry or goal benchmarks.
Ideally, one would want no disease to occur at all, but
this is not feasible nor reasonable to achieve.
This table provides benchmarks for postpartum disease prevalence and
the action level.
Which is the prevalence of disease where intervention to reduce the disease
would be expected to have financial rewards.
Underlying cause,
metabolic or postpartum disease goes beyond just nutrition and feed intake.

We need to consider management and environmental factors and
their impact on the nutritional program.
Another veterinary colleague, Dr Ken Nordlund from the University of Wisconsin
at Madison, has indicated that nutrition only accounts for
less than 20% of transition cow problems,
with the bulk of issues related to cow management and the environment.
We will address some of these concerns in our last lesson on disease prevention.
Okay, so now we have some perspective on transition cow health concerns,
underlying causes, and impact on herd health and productivity.
How do we identify a sick cow early enough
to stop the disease from causing serious production or cow losses?
Identifying and treating sick cows is a common practice on all farms.
The process should be consistent in its approach and
sufficiently thorough to identify all cows at risk.
The challenge is devising a method to make this process simple, repeatable,
and not overwhelming to cows or workers.
Often farms lock up all fresh cows and complete some form of examination on
all cows to find the sick cow or small number of cows.
This is time consuming and disturbs the healthy cows' normal activities.
We developed a two-stage method of finding sick cows.
The first step is used at a distance in observing cows in
a pen to identify those who need to be more closely evaluated.
We use this acronym, OBSERVED, to address
important cow features that may indicate some health problem as indicated here.
These cow observations could also be coupled with other indicators linked to
automatic measures of milk production, feed intake, or other parameters.
Once cows within a pen have been evaluated at a distance, and
those requiring further evaluation have been segregated.

Another acronym, INSPECT HER CAREFULLY,
was developed to provide guidance on the necessary close up examination process.
This program was developed to teach farm workers not very familiar with cows to
gain what is termed cow sense, in recognizing how a sick cow
differs from a healthy cow in physical appearance and in behavior.
There are many good methods in which a thorough and
systematic physical exam of the cow can be performed.
The bottom line is that dairy farms must have some disease recognition program in
place to identify sick cows in the early disease stages, so
that they might recover more quickly when treated appropriately.
Individuals performing this task should have some experience and
be trained by the herd veterinarian to improve their diagnostic skills.
Basic tools in performing these evaluations might include a thermometer,
colored chalk, or marker to identify treated cows,
a stethoscope to listen to the cow's lungs, heart, rumen and abdomen.
And urine or blood test strips to check for ketosis.
Of course, all evaluations should be recorded in the cow's record.
Once a sick cow has been identified, there should be a developed standard
operating procedure, or SOP, to direct the person completing
the examination as to how to treat and follow up with the cow.
Treatment SOPs should be developed with the herd veterinarian, and
be easy to follow for the worker.
This listing provides some disease examples for
which SOPs could be developed.
Our next topic will pick up from this point of our discussion and
address therapeutic protocols, proper use of antibiotics and
prevention of drug residues.
As we finish this lesson, here is a link for the training materials and
learning how to body condition score cows.
Welcome back to the metabolic disease and herd health section of this dairy MOOC.

I'm Robert Van Saun, Extension Veterinarian with Penn State University.
Today's discussion will address an extremely important aspect of animal
health, developing treatment protocols in the use
of antibiotic compounds in treating sick cows.
My objectives for this lesson are to provide a foundation for
understanding treatment approaches to sick cows and calves.
And to provide information to you to better understand therapeutic options,
and provide insight on the controversial issue of antibiotic usage in
food producing animals.
Up to this point,
we have address a variety of disease conditions in cows and calves.
These disease require some form of intervention
in an effort to correct the disease condition, and
alleviate any secondary problems or associated pain and discomfort.
When it comes to the metabolic diseases we discussed,


this intervention is fairly specific to the underlying disease problem.
For example, we would administer calcium to correct hypocalcemia.
Or in the case of ketosis, administer glucose or
glucose precursor's such as propylene glycol.
We may also administer additional supportive therapies to minimize relapse,
and to stimulate food intake.
In less specific disease circumstances such as a cow being off feed,
we may administer a solution of electrolytes, calcium, fermentable feeds,
B vitamins, and yeast as a drench to booster the animal,
stimulate appetite, and support the rumen.
One of the best methods to stimulate a dysfunctional rumen and the cow's appetite
is to transfer rumen juice from one cow to the sick cow's rumen via an oral tube.
This is termed transfaunation.

In providing rumen fluid containing healthy bacterial populations,
many large farms may have one or two cows with a permanent rumen fistula to
use as rumen content donors for their sick cow therapy.
Any of these approaches provide supportive care to the sick cow.
However, a vital aspect of sick
cow treatment comes from developing a defined protocol.
Which has procedures in place to avoid any residues in meat or
milk, as outlined here.
A protocol should ensure all cows are adequately identified with a proper
diagnosis, a consistent therapeutic approach is applied,
and all therapies are recorded in the cow's record.
Finally, all treated cows should be reevaluated to determine
if they have recovered, or require further evaluation and retreatment.
This essentially describes what is termed the treatment protocol, or
what we have previously described as a standard operating procedures for
other routine farm activities.
It is difficult to define specific treatment protocols for
all potential diseases processes.
Thus, treatment protocols should be developed for
common diseases seen on the farm.
The herd veterinarian should be consulted or brought in to provide a diagnosis in
situations where the cow does not fit into any protocol, or
when the diagnosis based on the protocol is uncertain.
Because we are dealing with food animals, treatment protocols should be written by
the herd veterinarian in conjunction with the herdsman and
herd workers to ensure proper use of medications,
adherence to all appropriate drug withdrawals for food safety.
And buy-in by all those persons to perform protocol.
In many herds the veterinarian may be solely responsible for
sick cow diagnosis and treatment.

But many herds may not have ready access to a veterinarian.
Or may be large enough to have workers perform many disease treatments.
In the latter case,


it is essential that treatment protocols are developed to ensure consistent and
proper animal diagnosis, and appropriate therapy is applied.
When it comes to infectious diseases such as mastitis, metritis,
which remember is uterine infection, or pneumonia, we typically need to
administer a therapeutic agent that would inhibit growth of the infectious agent.
For the most part, we only have therapeutic compounds to address bacterial
infections, and these compounds are termed antibiotics.
Use of antibiotics in treating sick calves, or cows, would be no different
than what a medical doctor would do for you or me if we were sick.
The challenge here is that the calf or cow we treat may become a food source for
people, and we want to be confident that there are no remaining medicines in
the milk or tissues of the animal when it is consumed for food.
The use of antibiotics is a controversial issue in food and
animal systems as a result of implications of pervasive overuse and
abuse by veterinarians and producers leading to drug resistance,
as is portrayed in this article from the Time Magazine.
As well as unwanted drug residues in the food supply.
This topic is very complicated and an important one to address but
an extensive discussion is beyond the scope of this course.
Let's just touch on some important concepts relative to antibiotics,
resistance, and residues.
We have already defined an antibiotic as a compound used to treat bacterial diseases.
However, antibiotics may be used for colds,
or other virus induced diseases where bacteria
are known to become secondary invaders once the virus has caused its damage.

There are two reasons for using antibiotics in treating sick animals.
The primary reason is to kill disease causing bacteria and
make the animal healthy again.
The second reason is to control or prevent disease in high risk animals.
The sub therapeutic usage defined as providing the antibiotic at
lower than treatment concentrations has been criticized, as it was perceived to be
used for growth promotion, and thought to promote resistance issues.
Most European countries, and recently here in the United States,
feeding of antibiotics for growth promotion has been banned.
Metaphylactic use occurs when we know animals are at high risk for disease and
antibiotics are used short term to reduce this disease susceptibility risk.
This approach has also come under more regulation.
The recent veterinary feed directive in the United States places
the use the antibiotics in feed for disease prevention totally under
veterinary control and prohibits the use the drug beyond its label directions.
This would be termed extra label use.
Antibiotics are highly regulated by governmental agencies to ensure proper
usage, and preventing potential contamination of food termed to residue
from treated animals entering the food chain.
Here in the US, and in most developed countries,
the animal based foods are very safe.


A recent survey by the Food and Drug Administration in the US showed less than
0.01 of bulk tank milk samples had detectable drug residue.
Not all of these, however, were above violation concentration.
No residues are found in retail milk, so when is a residue a residue?
Some people would prefer a zero tolerance for any drug or medication.
The practicality of this is limited, and there are potential negative consequences
on animal welfare in not treating animals appropriately that are sick.

The challenge here is our technology continues to advance and
it's ability to detect compounds in food and blur their line of defining a residue.
We can now measure compounds at a level of one part per billion, or even trillion.
Some analogies of just how small a fraction this is are shown here.
So what is significant when it comes to residues?
Some compounds have a zero tolerance,
meaning that if they are found at any level it is a violation.
Safe levels are those concentrations at which there is no perceived or
documented health concern for people consuming the food products.
Governmental oversight of antibiotic usage varies tremendously between countries and
even within a country.
Some countries require all antibiotic treatments to sick animals to
be administered by a veterinarian.
Some countries like the US allow some antibiotics to be purchased over
the counter by lay persons.
There even are differences in specialty production systems,
such as organic production.
Here in the US, antibiotics are not allowed to be used in organic herds.
Thus, sick cows need to be removed if treated or
they are treated with non antibiotic pharmaceuticals.
In contrast, organic production systems in Europe
can use antibiotics to treat sick cows out of a concern over animal welfare.
But the time period to hold any milk or
meat from a treated animal is at least three times the drug recommendation.
A legally approved antibiotic has undergone extensive testing to not
only determine its ability to treat a disease process, but
the time period following the last treatment required for tissue levels
of the drug to be either zero or below a defined amount considered safe.
This time period is what is termed the drug withdrawal time.
This period is defined for milk and

meat depending upon the animal type, beef or dairy, and which the drug is approved.
The challenge here is that the stated withdrawal time for
a given antibiotic is only applicable for the defined dosage,
animal type, and administration route described on the product label.
There are a number of issues as shown here that may alter the withdrawal time.
With the limited amount of antibiotics or other drugs approved for
use in food animals, veterinarians may use their clinical discretion
In administering drugs in a manner other than what is listed on the product label.
This is termed extra label drug use, and


in the US this use must be carefully documented, and
within the guidelines of the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act,
or what's known as AMDUCA.
Extra label use of drugs can only be applied when
under the supervision of the veterinarian familiar with the farm.
Length and withdrawal times need to be applied to this practice, and information
can be obtained from FARAD, which is the Food Animal Residue Avoidance Databank.
As much as the usage of antibiotic and
other therapeutic drugs is highly regulated, there
are potential issues on the farm that result in an inappropriate drug residue.
Most often this occurs when producers use over-the-counter
drugs without appropriate supervision.
Some other causes leading to residues are shown here and
underscore the need to establish treatment protocols.
As we have just described,
the improper use of antibiotics can result in unwanted drug residues in our food.
Similarly, improper use of antibiotics, whether it is in humans or
animals, can also lead to bacterial resistance to the affect of antibiotics.
Tissue drugs residues are not the same as drug resistance.

Antibiotic resistance is an important health concern in both medical doctors and
in veterinarians,
as this means their tools to fight disease become less effective.
Often antibiotic use in animals is implicated in causing bacterial resistance
for disease in humans.
However, most of the antibiotics used in veterinary medicine are either not used or
minimally used in human medicine.
The excessive use of antibiotic use in our human medicine
is also to be scrutinized in this issue.
The development of antibiotic resistance is a very complicated multi-faceted in
both human and veterinary medicine having a role.
Again, this issue further underscores our need to use antibiotics judiciously and
properly to prevent resistance in residue issues.
An additional consequence of treating sick cows also needs to be addressed.
This is the issue of blemishes in meat.
A blemish is different than a residue in that it is a physical change to
the muscle tissue as a result of an irritation.
A blemish may indicate the potential for
a drug residue, but residues can be found in tissues without a blemish.
The irritation inducing a blemish in a meat cut is most often the result of
an injected compound that causes localized inflammation.
Many drugs, not just antibiotics or
even vaccines could induce localized irritation resulting in a blemish.
Similar to many of the methods used to minimize risk for tissue residues,
here are some recommendations to prevent tissue blemishes.
Blemishes are not only a risk for tissue residues, but
also a significant financial loss in meat cuts for retail sale.


High quality cuts, such as muscles around the pelvis and upper leg,

can have high blemish damage to prevent more desired meat cuts being produced,
due to the trimming necessary to remove the blemishes.
Although we focus on milk production as the primary food product generated
on the dairy farm, we must realize that our bull calves are used for veal or
raised for beef.
And our cows being removed from milk production will enter the food chain
as a beef source.
Here in the US, market or what's termed cold dairy cows, account for
7.7% of the slaughtered animals, but are responsible for
more than 66% of all residues found in commercial meat.
Similarly, young veal calves account for
another 25% of all commercial meat residue violations.
Thus, the dairy industry must address issues related to appropriate drug use and
after care in treated cows and calves.
All of these issues relative to proper antibiotic use, tissue residue avoidance,
and blemished meat are addressed in dairy quality assurance programs,
like this program developed at Penn State.
These programs provide educational materials for
dairy producers to enact best management practices, to ensure proper animal care,
and a safe food supply, whether it be milk or meat.
It is the responsibility of dairy producers, their workers, and
veterinarians to insure a safe food supply with appropriate use of therapeutic
agents in treating cows with disease.
One way to reduce antibiotic usage is to improve overall cow health and
resistance to disease.
This can be achieved by providing good nutrition, using appropriate disease
preventive practices, and housing animals in a stress-free environment.
Preventative practices to keep cows healthy will be the topic of our next and
final lesson in this section of the course.
Preventative Practices

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[MUSIC]
Welcome to our 6th and final segment of the metabolic diseases and
herd health section of the course.
I'm Robert Van Saun at Penn State University.
Previously, we have discussed the many disease risks for dairy cows and
calves, and how we can initiate early diagnosis of disease.
Our most recent discussion addressed treatment protocols for
the sick cow or calf, and potential consequences of antibiotic usage.
In this final segment we will discuss potential preventative practices we can
use to possibly control or prevent disease from happening.
Objectives for this lesson are to understand potential roles of vaccination,
parasite control and nutrition and disease prevention.
As well as the role of the environment in disease risk, or control.
In our first lesson, we ask the question,
should we be treating broken cows, or preventing cows from becoming broken?
Economics, production efficiency, and concerns for
animal welfare all direct us to disease prevention.
So how do we prevent cows from becoming broken?

Here is where we come full circle in our discussion.