The impact of calf health on future performance

摘要

Enteritis and pneumonia are common causes of calf ill health and death, with approximately one third of Northern Ireland dairy producers in a survey conducted by the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI) and the College of Agriculture, Food and Rural Enterprise (CAFRE) indicating that they had problems with these conditions. Figure 1 shows causes of mortality in neonatal (up to fourweeks old) calves submitted to AFBI and the Department of Agricuture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) veterinary laboratories in Ireland during 2011 (All-island Animal Disease Surveillance Report 2011, AFBI/DAFM).