Effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on neonatal calf diarrhea when administered at a disease alert generated by automated milk feeders
Effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on neonatal calf diarrhea when administered at a disease alert generated by automated milk feeders
Open access
In our edition of: Apr 2025
In our categories of: farm animals
our summary:
Welk, A. et al. (2025) Effect of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs on neonatal calf diarrhea when administered at a disease alert generated by automated milk feeders. Journal of Dairy Science, 108 (2), pp. 1842-1854.
The aim of this randomised clinical trial was to determine if early intervention with a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) following a disease alert generated by automated milk feeders can reduce the duration of diarrhoea and improve feed intakes and performance in dairy cows. A secondary aim was to assess if intervening with NSAIDs at the time of a disease alert affects activity and lying behaviour during a diarrhoea bout.
The study was carried out at a single facility in Canada which used automatic milk feeders to feed the calves. Female Holstein dairy calves were followed from enrolment into the study at three days of age until 35 days of age. Calves were offered up to 15 litres per day of milk replacer via the milk feeder, they also had access to a starter feeder which dispensed starter in 10-g increments, straw and water. The automated milk and starter feeders recorded daily milk intake, drinking speed, rewarded and unrewarded visits to the milk feeder, time spent at the milk feeder, intake of starter, visits to and time spent at the starter feeder. Calves were weighed at birth and then weekly as well as on the day of an alert. Health scoring was carried out daily.
The alert identified calves at risk of diarrhoea using rolling dividends in individual milk intake and drinking speed based on the previous two days data; calves with a dividend of ≤60% in milk intake or drinking speed over the previous two days triggered a disease alert. On the day of an alert calves were randomly allocated to one of two treatment groups and received either a single subcutaneous injection of meloxicam (0.5 mg/kg) (NSAID group) or a single subcutaneous injection of saline (CON group) (0.5 mg/kg). A subset of calves from each treatment arm were fitted with a pedometer at three days of age to measure activity behaviours, including lying time and step count.
A total of 71 calves were enrolled in the study (NSAID=37, CON=34), there were no differences between the groups for birth weights, passive immunity or body weight at the alert. On average calves in both groups triggered the alert at similar days of age. By the end of the 35-day study period 86% of NSAID calves were diagnosed with diarrhoea, and 13.5% of calves remained healthy, in the CON group 88% of calves were diagnosed with diarrhoea, and 12% of calves remained healthy.
No differences were observed between the treatment groups at either 2d before the alert or 5d following the alert for milk intake, drinking speed, rewarded visits or time spent in the milk feeder. Similarly, no differences were observed between the groups for lying time, activity index or steps 2d before the alert, however NSAID calves tended to have greater lying bouts. In the 5d following the alert NSAID calves had a greater number of lying bouts and spent less time lying compared with CON calves. NSAID calves also had a greater activity index indicating increased activity and performed more steps. There was no difference in body weight between the groups at 35 days of age, nor was average daily gain affected by study treatment in the three-week period following the alert.
Limitations of the study include the small sample size, the low specificity of the algorithm used to detect calves at risk for diarrhoea, and that the data is from one farm only.
This study provides some evidence that providing an NSAID at the time of an automated diarrhoea disease alert generated by milk feeders does not affect diarrhoea duration, feed intake or growth. Further studies are required to investigate whether providing NSAID at the time of disease alert reduced pain and lethargy.
The following may be of interest
Curtis, G. et al. (2018) The impact of early life nutrition and housing on growth and reproduction in dairy cattle. PLOS ONE, 13 (2): e0191687. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191687
An inFOCUS summary is available
Steele, M. (201) Performance and behavioural effects of separating dairy cows and their calves at birth. Veterinary Evidence, 4 (3), https://doi.org/10.18849/ve.v4i3.241
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