Pathogen Reduction by UV Light of Waste Milk for Improved Animal Health of Neonatal Calves

摘要

The primary goal of dairy calf producers is to raise healthy heifer calves, while minimizing production costs and maximizing profits. Liquid feed can come from several sources including saleable whole milk, raw and pasteurized waste milk, and commercial milk replacers. Whole milk is nutritionally more valuable to a calf s long term growth and productivity than milk replacer, but is a more expensive option2. Waste milk, which includes milk from the colostral discard period and discarded milk from treated cows, may be a more economical alternative to saleable whole milk and milk replacer. The estimated savings of feeding pasteurized waste milk is approximately $0.69 per calf per day2 over milk replacer. Pasteurized waste milk fed calves had fewer dayswith illness, reduced treatment costs, greater average weaning weights, and grossed an extra $8.41 /calf at weaning than calves fed raw waste milk3. On farm pasteurization of waste milk is used to reduce the disease risk associated with this nutritionalsource. On-farm pasteurization systems used are: batch (62.8°C for 30 minutes), and a high temperature short time (HTST) continuous flow (71.7°C for 15 seconds)8. Studies have shown that both systems can be effective at destroying most of the pathogenic bacteria that cause diseases in calves 1,1.