Vet World   Vol.15   May-2022  Article-14

Prevalence of susceptibility to Cryptosporidium spp. among dairy calves with different feeding regimens with an emphasis on the feeding of transition milk

Background and Aim: Colostrum composition and importance for newborn organisms were repeatedly studied. However, the interest in transitional milk usefulness is weak and recommendations concerning transition milk intake are not developed. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether transition milk intake after colostrum consumption affects the chances of calf infection with Cryptosporidium spp.

Materials and Methods: We collected data for Cryptosporidium spp. infection from calves (n=425) divided into three groups: The first group – supervised colostrum and transition milk intake; the second group – supervised colostrum and whole milk intake; and the third group – not supervised colostrum and whole milk intake. To detect oocysts of Cryptosporidium spp. in feces, the flotation method was used, and slides were stained using the modified Ziehl-Neelsen method. Generalized linear mixed modeling was conducted to determine whether the explanatory variable – the management of colostrum and transition milk feeding with three categories (three research groups) – was related to the probability of calves incurring infection with Cryptosporidium spp.

Results: In the first group, 26.1% of calves were positive for the presence of Cryptosporidium spp. oocysts, in the second – 37.2%, and in the third – 44.1%. Statistical data analysis showed that calves who did not receive transition milk after colostrum consumption had increased chances of having Cryptosporidium spp. (by 1.90-2.47 times on average). The main results showed that the management of colostrum and transition milk feeding is related to Cryptosporidium spp. infection, indicating that both colostrum and transitional milk play a significant role in controlling pathogenic infections.

Conclusion: The most effective management of colostrum and transition milk feeding against Cryptosporidium spp. infection is the timely intake of an adequate amount of colostrum followed by transitional milk consumption for at least 2 weeks before weaning from the dam. Keywords: calves, colostrum, Cryptosporidium, neonatal diarrhea, transition milk.

Keywords: calves, colostrum, Cryptosporidium, neonatal diarrhea, transition milk.

How to cite this article: Zolova A, Keidāne D, Zolovs M (2022) Prevalence of susceptibility to Cryptosporidium spp. among dairy calves with different feeding regimens with an emphasis on the feeding of transition milk, Veterinary World, 15(5): 1256-1260.

Received: 18-01-2022  Accepted: 20-04-2022     Published online: 22-05-2022

Corresponding author: Maksims Zolovs   E-mail: maksims.zolovs@rsu.lv

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2022.1256-1260

Copyright: Zolova, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.