Reduction in morbidity due to diarrhea in nursing beef calves by use of an inactivated oil-adjuvanted rotavirus — Escherichia coli vaccine in the dam

Abstract

An outbreak of neonatal diarrhea occurred among beef calves (2000 animals) from one large Argentinian farm in 1985. Rotavirus was detected in 78% (106/136) and enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli in 1.5% of the samples (2/136) obtained from sick calves. In comparison rotavirus was identified in only 1.6% (1/63) of the samples from clinically healthy calves. The rotavirus strain responsible for the outbreak was characterized as serotype 6 belonging to group A. In the following three years the protective capacity of a combined rotavirus-E. coli inactivated vaccine administered to the dams during the last third of the gestation period was evaluated on this farm by comparison of morbidity due to diarrhea in calves from vaccinated vs. placebo cows within the same year. The morbidity due to diarrhea among calves from dams in the vaccinated and placebo groups was 34% and 77%, respectively in 1986; 23% and 47% in 1987, and 15% and 34%, in 1988. In 1987 morbidity of diarrhea in calves born from vaccinated heifers was 54% and 74% in calves from placebo heifers. In 1988 morbidity from diarrhea was 41% and 54%, respectively among calves in these two groups. In all experiments, calves from heifers showed significantly greater morbidity than calves from cows. Differences in diarrhea morbidity between the vaccinated and placebo groups were statistically significant (P less than 0.05). Additional studies showed that the diarrhea had a significant influence (P less than 0.05) on the average live weight of the calves at weaning (5 to 7 months) with an average weight loss of 7.8 kg per calf among the calves affected with diarrhea.

Serotype 1 and 2 Bovine Noroviruses Are Endemic in Cattle in the United Kingdom and Germany

“…Thus, there is a case for their inclusion in calf enteric vaccines if both viruses are shown to be implicated in calf diarrhea. Current calf diarrhea vaccines are based on lactogenic immunity, wherein dams are vaccinated to raise colostral antibodies (5)(6)(7)20), but calf diarrhea outbreaks still occur in vaccinated herds (5). Incorporation of bovine noroviruses into calf diarrhea vaccines may increase vaccine efficacy, but it is likely that both bovine norovirus serotypes will need to be incorporated.…”

Evaluation of Relative Resuscitative Effects of Hypertonic and Isotonic Saline Solutions as an Adjunct to Ceftiofur HCl in Bovine Neonatal Diarrhea Associated with Escherichia coli

“…The mean incidence of diarrhea in individual herds of cattle can be as high as 80% (Cornaglia et al, 1992;Khan and Khan, 1995;Wright et al, 1995); therefore, rates of diarrhea > 50% are not unusual. The mortality rate due to diarrhea varies up to 25% (Khan and Khan, 1995;Buenau et al, 2005;Khan et al, 2009).…”

Passive immunity in cattle against enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli: serologic evaluation of a bacterin containing K99 and F41 fimbriae in colostrum of vaccinated females and calf serum

“…Different vaccines have been developed using ETEC strains producing K99 and F41. These vaccines may consist of bacterins (Acres et al, 1979;Pugh and Wells, 1985;Contrepois et al, 1985;Cornaglia et al, 1992), crude K99 and F41 extracts (Nagy, 1980) or purified fimbriae (Acres et al, 1979;Nagy et al, 1990;Yano et al, 1995). In these studies, the most extensively employed method for the evaluation of these vaccines was post-vaccinal serologic analysis.…”