Risk factors associated with diarrhoea in newborn calves

A prospective study was carried out on 94 randomly selected beef calf herds in the Midi-Pyrenees region in France in order to determine neonatal gastr oenteritis risk factors. A total of 3 080 newborn calves was enrolled from December 1995 to April 1996. By using a specific statistical analysis metho d that takes into account an 'intra-herd' correlation, our final model allo ws the identification of approximately 20 management risk factors associate d with diarrhoea. We confirmed several factors identified previously (calvi ng conditions) and estimated some new factors (month of birth). Several her d level factors were found to be significantly associated with the risk of diarrhoea. These factors included herd management conditions such as hygien e (cleaning, relative risk (RR) = 1.9), and also vitamin or salt supplement s to animals and cow vaccination (RR = 2). It was found amongst the calf le vel factors, that calving conditions and dyspnea were associated with diarr hoea. Dam vaccination seemed to protect calves against illness. A relations hip between diarrhoea and the month of birth was also observed. Our results confirmed that calf diarrhoea is a multifactor pathology and prevention sh ould be considered globally within the farm. (C) Inra/Elsevier, Paris.