Diagnostic accuracy of Wisconsin and California scoring systems to detect bovine respiratory disease in preweaning dairy calves under subtropical environmental conditions

Abstract

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a multifactorial disease which causes short-and long-term negative effects. Early detection is crucial for a prompt response to therapy, as well as to decrease mortality risk. Clinical scoring systems have been developed mostly in North America for screening calves at risk or suspected of having BRD, and these tools have also been applied in subtropical and tropical countries. However, it has been unknown whether these scoring systems had the same accuracy in tropical environmental conditions. Therefore, this study evaluated the accuracy of 4 different field techniques, as well as serum haptoglobin (HAP), to diagnose BRD in Holstein dairy calves in subtropical conditions. The tests used to diagnose BRD were thoracic ultrasound (TUS; positive if consolidation depth ≥1 cm), thoracic auscultation (AUSC; positive if crackles, wheezes, or silent areas were present), Wisconsin score (WISC; ≥2 categories with scores of ≥2), and California score (CALIF; positive if total score ≥5). Also, HAP was measured and classified as positive if ≥15 mg/dL. Heifers between 30 d of age and weaning (n = 482), residing on 17 commercial dairies in São Paulo state, were enrolled in this study. Bayesian latent class models were used with informative priors to evaluate the accuracy of TUS, AUSC, and HAP, and noninformative priors for the accuracy of WISC and CALIF. The percentage of calves positive for each test on each farm ranged from 0 to 56% for WISC, 11-51% for CALIF, 0-72% for TUS, 0-32% for AUSC, and 0-100% for HAP. The sensitivity (Se; 95% credible interval) and specificity (Sp) for WISC were 77.9% (64.8-90.2) and 81. 9% (76.3-88.2). For CALIF, the Se was 67.1% (53.6-80.1) and Sp 79.1% (73.9-84.6). For TUS Se was 59.8% (46.5-73.1) and Sp was 84.8% (80.0-89.5), and for AUSC, Se was 58.8% (41.3-79.8) and Sp was 98.6% (95.7-99.9). The Se and Sp of HAP was 67.6% (55.3-78.8) and 46.7% (41.4-52.2), respectively. The performance of the scoring systems was similar to, or better than, the performance found in North American studies, despite the fact that calves were in a tropical environment.

Can We Reliably Detect Respiratory Diseases through Precision Farming? A Systematic Review

“…The use of thoracic ultrasonography is considered accurate to detect respiratory diseases in bovine [ 58 ]. Studies comparing the efficiency of many clinical signs and clinical score systems to thoracic ultrasonography for diagnosing respiratory diseases were published [ 59 , 60 ]. Lowie et al [ 60 ] found that spontaneous cough was the clinical sign that best indicated a calf to have respiratory diseases; however, the performance of this clinical sign is relatively poor (Se = 37.4%, Sp = 85.7%).…”

“…This result shows that the scoring chart is also not a perfect measure to be used as a reference test for detecting respiratory disease. When applying scoring systems, the criteria for diagnosing respiratory diseases in different environments should also be taken into consideration [ 59 ].…”

Prevalence of respiratory disease in Irish preweaned dairy calves using hierarchical Bayesian latent class analysis

“…To estimate the Se and Sp of clinical scoring and thoracic ultrasound, a systematic literature review was conducted for the priors used in this analysis. In total, 4 papers were found that fulfilled the criteria for TUS (13,(23)(24)(25)) and 3 papers were found that fulfilled the criteria for CRS (23)(24)(25) (see Supplemental material for search strings, inclusion criteria and results). A mean Se for TUS was estimated at 0.73 (0.58, 0.86) and a mean Sp of 0.88 (0.83, 0.93) was estimated.…”

“…There are numerous published versions and interpretations of the Wisconsin respiratory scoring system (20,21,(26)(27)(28)(29), other scoring systems such as the California score also exist (22). The Se and Sp of clinical scoring varies widely in the literature (Se; 0.48-0.78, Sp; 0.74-0.99) (23)(24)(25). Clinical scoring systems can have poor inter-rater agreement as shown by Buckzinski et al (30).…”

Detection of Trueperella pygogenes in deep pulmonary tissues of cattle with suppurative pneumonitis in Sohag Governorate, Egypt.

“…Pneumonias are a serious field problem of cattle significantly deters the level of productive and reproductive capacities of the herd and/or individual cases (Griffin et al, 1997 andDecaris et al, 2022). Bovine pneumonias are a multifactorial syndrome.…”