BackgroundCalf disease may result in great economic losses. To implement prevention strategies it is important to gain information on management and to point out risk factors. The objective of this internet based survey was to describe calf management practices on registered dairy breeding farms in Austria and to estimate differences in calf disease incidences depending on farm structure and management practices.ResultsA total of 1287 questionnaires were finally analysed (response rate 12.2 %). Herd characteristics and regional distribution of farms indicated that this survey gives a good overview on calf management practices on registered dairy farms in Austria. The median number of cows per farm was 20 (interquartile range 13–30). Significant differences regarding farm characteristics and calf management between small and large farms (≤20 vs >20 cows) were present. Only 2.8 % of farmers tested first colostrum quality by use of a hydrometer. Storing frozen colostrum was more prevalent on large farms (80.8 vs 64.2 %). On 85.1 % of the farms, whole milk, including waste milk, was fed to the calves. Milk replacer and waste milk were more often used on large farms. In accordance with similar studies from other countries, calf diarrhoea was indicated as the most prevalent disease. Multivariable logistic regression analysis revealed that herd size was associated with calf diarrhoea and calf respiratory tract disease, with higher risk of disease on large farms. Furthermore, feeding waste milk to the calves was associated with increasing calf diarrhoea incidence on farm. In the final model with calf respiratory tract disease as outcome, respondents from organic farms reported less often a respiratory tract disease incidence of over 10 % compared with conventional farms [odds ratio (OR) 0.40, 95 % confidence interval (CI) 0.21–0.75] and farmers that housed calves individually or in groups after birth significantly reported more often to have an incidence of respiratory tract disease >10 % compared with farms where all calves were housed individually (OR 2.28, 95 % CI 1.16–4.48).ConclusionThe results obtained in this study provide an overview on calf management on dairy breeding farms in Austria and may help to further point out areas to be improved on farm.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13028-015-0134-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
The Brix refractometers provided the most accurate assessment of colostrum quality of the devices evaluated, and demonstrated excellent precision in terms of repeatability. To provide optimal health for newborn calves, a sufficient intake of good quality colostrum is essential. The Brix refractometers provide rapid, convenient tools for classification of colostrum quality.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the suitability of the electronic handheld devices FreeStyle Precision (FSP; Abbott Germany, Wiesbaden, Germany) and GlucoMen LX Plus (GML; A. Menarini GmbH, Vienna, Austria) for the measurement of β-hydroxybutyrate (BHBA) in whole blood in dairy goats. Additionally, glucose concentration was analyzed with the FSP device. For method comparison, the samples were also analyzed in the laboratory by standard methods, which served as the gold standard in our study. A further objective was to evaluate the agreement between samples obtained by minimal invasive venipuncture of an ear vein and measurements of whole blood samples from the jugular vein (vena jugularis). In total, 173 blood sample pairs collected from 28 goats were obtained from an ear vein and from the jugular vein. The Spearman correlation coefficients (rsp) for BHBA concentrations determined with the FSP or GML and the gold standard were 0.95 and 0.85 for the ear vein and 0.98 and 0.88 for the jugular vein, respectively. Bland-Altman plots of differences showed a positive bias of 0.12 (ear vein) and 0.21 (jugular vein) when determination was performed with the FSP and a negative bias of 0.21 (ear vein) and 0.24 (jugular vein) when using the GML. For the FSP, applying the adjusted thresholds determined by ROC analysis of 0.9 (ear vein) and 1.0 mmol/L (jugular vein) allowed to distinguish between healthy goats and animals with hyperketonemia with sensitivities (Se) and specificities (Sp) for samples from the ear vein of 0.98 and 0.85, and from the jugular vein of 0.99 and 0.94, respectively. For the GML, adjusted thresholds were 0.5 mmol/L for the ear vein (Se=0.94, Sp=0.75) and 0.6 mmol/L for the jugular vein (Se=0.88, Sp=0.91). Repeated analyses of defined whole blood samples showed average inter- and intraassay coefficients of variation of 6.6 and 7.3% for FSP, and of 35.6 and 35.4% for GML, respectively. Test characteristics for determining glucose concentration with the FSP compared with the gold standard were poor (ear vein: rsp=0.41; jugular vein: rsp=0.51), with low validity to distinguish between hypo- and normoglycemia (Se=0.71, Sp=0.66). The present study showed good test characteristics for the FSP and moderate for the GML device for determining BHBA concentrations in whole blood. Additionally the results demonstrate the suitability of testing BHBA concentration in a blood drop obtained from an ear vein. Based on the results of this study, the FSP device is not suitable to differentiate normo- from hypoglycemia in goats.
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