Fb. Garry et al., COMPARISON OF PASSIVE IMMUNOGLOBULIN TRANSFER TO DAIRY CALVES FED COLOSTRUM OR COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE COLOSTRAL-SUPPLEMENT PRODUCTS, Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, 208(1), 1996, pp. 107-110
Objective-To compare the efficacy of 3 commercially available colostra
l-supplement products with that of natural bovine colostrum in providi
ng immunoglobulins ?or passive transfer and disease protection. Design
-Prospective randomized control trial. Animals-47 neonatal female Hols
tein calves from unassisted, observed births. Calves were vigorous, st
ood within 90 minutes of birth, and did not suckle their darns. Proced
ure-Calves were fed 2 L of colostrum or a colostral-supplement product
within 2 hours after birth and again prior to 12 hours of age. Serum
IgG concentrations were measured at 24 and 48 hours after parturition,
and apparent percentage of absorption for the colostrum and for each
product was calculated. Prevalence of disease in all 4 groups of calve
s during the first 30 days of life was compared. Results-Calves fed na
tural bovine colostrum (group 1) had highest serum IgG concentrations
(range, 12.4 to 31.6 mg/ml) at 24 hours after birth, whereas serum IgG
concentrations in calves fed colostral products ranged from 1.9 to 8.
6 mg/ml. Values for apparent percentage absorption of colostral IgG in
group-1 calves was 3 times that of calves fed colostral products. Gro
up-1 calves had significantly (P < 0.05) fewer episodes of disease dur
ing the first 30 days of life, compared with carves fed colostral-supp
lement products. Clinical Implications-Commercially available colostra
l-supplement products are less efficient at providing immunoglobulin t
ransfer and disease protection to newborn calves, compared with bovine
colostrum, even when fed at equal volume and similar immunoglobulin c
oncentration.