hillsdown":2in0b2ps said:
We have a closed herd and everything is vaccinated it is an aid in prevention not an end.
Closed herd or not scours is a management issue. Scours with ecoli or roto or corona or anything is management prevented. Management can include the use of vaccines, closed herd, clean calving bedding, an area that has been void of cows minimmun 6 months for calving, alot of space...big one and probably one or two i missed.
Calving area is a big one. Clean dry bedding is all well and good, but if the cow is calving in her winter feeding area it is a recipe for trouble. If the area has not been cleaned out in a while or cleaned out just prior to calving it is a recipe for disaster.
Another big one is say the year you set up your calving area you had fifty cows. Now you have 100 cows in the same size area, gonna run into scours
Another management issue is colostrum. These calves that get ecoli or any other scour, watch, check, how was the birth? Was it hard, difficult, stressfull? 6 times out of ten the calves who had a stressful birth either did not get the colostrum early enough
or knowing how hands on you are got the colostrum early enough but because of the stress the absorption was reduced. It is a known fact that difficult births or stressfull births can reduce the colostrum absorption in a calf.
Two calves born the same time, one stressed one not, equal quality and quantity of colostrum but they did not absorb the colostrum the same. Reason, there is documentation that the stressed calf absorbs alot less of the antibodies, thus more prone to sickness.
I know that vaccination is a prevention and not an end but it is one prevention amongst several that can lead to an end.
You raise your own bulls...if not ...not a closed herd.