Aetiopathology of Neonatal Calf Mortality

Calf mortality has been reported to be very high in cow and buffalo neonates. This mortality has mostly been attributed to infectious agents, i.e. rotavirus, coronavirus, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli, salmonella species and cryptosporidium. Other important causes of calf mortality include immunodeficiency, seasonal effects parity of the dam, difficult parturition, sex and birth weight of the neonate and faulty management conditions. Of the infectious agents, rotavirus and E. coli are mainly involved in the causation of neonatal calf diarrhea which lead to high mortality and morbidity in young calves. E. coli mainly plays its role up to second week of life while rotavirus up to third week. Pneumonia causes great economic losses in neonatal calves. Electron microscopy is the standard technique for virus diagnosis, however, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) is widely used now-a-days because of its easy handing, less technical still involved and availability.