Coccidiosis

[Anonymous]

We were in a drought before this but the weekend all this come about, it flooded.

 

[Ebenezer]

How common is this?
How much is caused by calving in wet conditions?

These were weaned heifer calves that I had problems with recently. The other two times was spring, very young calves and seems it was wet conditions at the time. Another cattleman in the area had issues back then also. No one that I know of locally is having trouble now. Except me.

We had one outbreak in one pasture during the drought & weren't the only ones around here. A lot of seasoned ranchers said it was because all the birds (including geese, ducks, etc) had flocked to what's left of the ponds & contaminated them. Our vet didn't rule that out as a possibility. Fortunately ours was a mild case and I mixed Corid pellets in with their cubes, cleared it right up.

Contamination and lack of sanitation is a big issue with the problem but I have been told that the Coccodia are species specific and do not cross over.

 

[Margonme]

Zirlottkim:

Coccidia are parasitic protozoans. In ecology an organism that lives in a host and uses the host as a source of nutrients is a parasite. In the same fasion that trichomonas is a parasite.
There is not an effective vaccine. As a note, vaccines are rarely effective for protozoans.

Coccidia are ubiquitous. Just like the oxygen in the air. Mammals are exposed and develop immunity. In the husbandry of cattle, the environment is often crowded and contaminated. The coccidial load overwhelms the immune system. Disease manifests itself. The best course is to pursue a plan of prevention. Rumensen and bovatec are not parasiticides. Meaning they do not kill the coccidia. They act to enhance the calves absorption of electrolytes, nutrients, etc. They also enhance the digestive environment thus promoting better health and immune response.

In the end, the host must develop immunity. Early exposure to coccidia in low numbers is beneficial as it promotes early immune response.

I have a 6 month old Corgi pup. He is house broke. He started getting up in the night and could not control his bowel movement. It was soft and watery. A fecal sample identified coccidia. I drenched him for 7 days with a specific parasiticide. He is fine and as he gets older will have a natural immunity.

PS: as TB stated. If you use bovatec or rumensen to combat coccidia, don't supply it via mineral. Coccidia is rarely a factor with cows. It is more likely in calves. Calves may not consume enough mineral. Get it in the feed.

 

[Ebenezer]

Mentioned already - ozotes are species specific. So cow to calf, calf to calf, ewe to lamb, ... If you do feed minerals with something that does control coccidiosis and the cows are the only ones to eat it for the months prior to calving, there are less ozotes shed by the cows for the calves to ingest. So, minerals with whatever are an indirect preventative in the calves. That is the strategy recommended on sheep and it works great. Sort of the clean ground theory. Like the old man said, "The best way to get out of trouble is to never get into it".

 

[Margonme]

Mentioned already - ozotes are species specific. So cow to calf, calf to calf, ewe to lamb, ... If you do feed minerals with something that does control coccidiosis and the cows are the only ones to eat it for the months prior to calving, there are less ozotes shed by the cows for the calves to ingest. So, minerals with whatever are an indirect preventative in the calves. That is the strategy recommended on sheep and it works great. Sort of the clean ground theory. Like the old man said, "The best way to get out of trouble is to never get into it".

Just to be clear. Transmission is not cow to calf, calf to calf. There is not "direct transmission". The oocysts are excreted in the manure and are not infective until they sporulate and develop into the sporozoite. They sporulate on the substrate the animals are housed in. The host has to ingest the sporozoite to become infected.

ozotes. Not familiar with that term. Do you mean oocysts?

This is an extremely large group of protozoans. They are species specific with exceptions.

 

[Ebenezer]

Mentioned already - ozotes are species specific. So cow to calf, calf to calf, ewe to lamb, ... If you do feed minerals with something that does control coccidiosis and the cows are the only ones to eat it for the months prior to calving, there are less ozotes shed by the cows for the calves to ingest. So, minerals with whatever are an indirect preventative in the calves. That is the strategy recommended on sheep and it works great. Sort of the clean ground theory. Like the old man said, "The best way to get out of trouble is to never get into it".

Just to be clear. Transmission is not cow to calf, calf to calf. There is not "direct transmission". The oocysts are excreted in the manure and are not infective until they sporulate and develop into the sporozoite. They sporulate on the substrate the animals are housed in. The host has to ingest the sporozoite to become infected.

ozotes. Not familiar with that term. Do you mean oocysts?

This is an extremely large group of protozoans. They are species specific with exceptions.

However you want to say it.

 

[Nesikep]

I think it was while reading the Corid literature that I found this protozoan requires a certain B vitamin to live/reproduce.. It also has an incubation time of 4-6 weeks, which is the exact age my calves get it, if they do.. seems as though every year I have a couple.. they look and feel awful, but unlike bacterial scours, don't go off milk and I've never had a loss. I did learn to not keep heifers that have had it really badly as it damages their gut permanantly, and this isn't evident while they're on milk, so they look like nice animals at weaning and fall apart over the next winter and aren't efficient feed converters. Corid works by blocking the absorption of the B vitamin.

I had some eureka moments regarding what calves eat, etc but I've forgotten it now.

 

[Anonymous]

I think it was while reading the Corid literature that I found this protozoan requires a certain B vitamin to live/reproduce.. It also has an incubation time of 4-6 weeks, which is the exact age my calves get it, if they do.. seems as though every year I have a couple.. they look and feel awful, but unlike bacterial scours, don't go off milk and I've never had a loss. I did learn to not keep heifers that have had it really badly as it damages their gut permanantly, and this isn't evident while they're on milk, so they look like nice animals at weaning and fall apart over the next winter and aren't efficient feed converters. Corid works by blocking the absorption of the B vitamin.

I had some eureka moments regarding what calves eat, etc but I've forgotten it now.

I had a supposedly knowledgeable cow man look at my calves when they first got sick. He said I had a Vitamin B deficiency. So on his advice I gave the sickest a shot of Vitamin B. Next day I sent fecal samples to vet and coccidiosis was diognosed. After reading your post, I went to Corid site and read this:How CORID works
Structurally, CORID mimics thiamin (Vitamin B1) which is required by coccidia for normal growth and reproduction. When coccidia ingest CORID, they experience thiamin deficiency and starve from malnutrition. I think I was shooting myself in the foot.

 

[Margonme]

I think it was while reading the Corid literature that I found this protozoan requires a certain B vitamin to live/reproduce.. It also has an incubation time of 4-6 weeks, which is the exact age my calves get it, if they do.. seems as though every year I have a couple.. they look and feel awful, but unlike bacterial scours, don't go off milk and I've never had a loss. I did learn to not keep heifers that have had it really badly as it damages their gut permanantly, and this isn't evident while they're on milk, so they look like nice animals at weaning and fall apart over the next winter and aren't efficient feed converters. Corid works by blocking the absorption of the B vitamin.

I had some eureka moments regarding what calves eat, etc but I've forgotten it now.

I had a supposedly knowledgeable cow man look at my calves when they first got sick. He said I had a Vitamin B deficiency. So on his advice I gave the sickest a shot of Vitamin B. Next day I sent fecal samples to vet and coccidiosis was diognosed. After reading your post, I went to Corid site and read this:How CORID works
Structurally, CORID mimics thiamin (Vitamin B1) which is required by coccidia for normal growth and reproduction. When coccidia ingest CORID, they experience thiamin deficiency and starve from malnutrition. I think I was shooting myself in the foot.

I am skeptical of those scenarios where someone makes a casual observation of your herd and pronounces such a verdict. Unfortunately, it is usually not that easy.

 

[Nesikep]

Thanks for the clarification on how it works.. it was a while since I read that literature, it mimics it, not blocks it.. semantics to some
Yes, depending on the composition of the B vitiman you gave, it may not have done them any good when they suffer of coccidiosis.. Once they have immunity built up and are on the mend, perhaps it could help?

IF I can get my hand on Corid (vet doesn't have it), I think I may give all my calves a shot of it around 3 weeks of age.. they seem to fall ill between 4-6 weeks which is the usual incubation time, if I can stiffle it at that stage they may get immunity by the time it comes back again.. give them a fighting chance at least. I still have found no rhyme or reason as to why some calves get it and others don't

 

[Margonme]

Mentioned already - ozotes are species specific. So cow to calf, calf to calf, ewe to lamb, ... If you do feed minerals with something that does control coccidiosis and the cows are the only ones to eat it for the months prior to calving, there are less ozotes shed by the cows for the calves to ingest. So, minerals with whatever are an indirect preventative in the calves. That is the strategy recommended on sheep and it works great. Sort of the clean ground theory. Like the old man said, "The best way to get out of trouble is to never get into it".

Very good point. You can break the pathway by using some form of mineral or feed containing a coccidiastat or coccidiacide. Coccidia like most parasites are some of the most highly specialized organisms on the planet. They have evolved to perform one function - keep on keeping on - perpetuate the species. Disrupt a step in their life cycle and they fail.

 

[lindseynicole010]

thanks

 

[angus9259]

Rumensen and bovatec are not parasiticides. Meaning they do not kill the coccidia. They act to enhance the calves absorption of electrolytes, nutrients, etc. They also enhance the digestive environment thus promoting better health and immune response.

They don't kill the coccidia but they DO stop it from proceeding through it's life cycle to give the calf more time to build immunity before it gets out of control - ie they are a coccidioSTAT. They do the other things you mentioned AS WELL but that's not all they do. So, while they are ionophores that help with nutrient processing, the do have a specific and direction function in the life cycle of the coccidia.

 

[angus9259]

IF I can get my hand on Corid (vet doesn't have it), I think I may give all my calves a shot of it around 3 weeks of age..

You can buy it on line. But you don't give them a one time "shot" of it. The preventative approach for corid is a 30 day program and the treatment is a 5 day program so it's not as easy as it sounds.

 

[Nesikep]

Yes, I didn't word that very well..