Hygiene management in newborn individually housed dairy calves focusing on housing and feeding practices.

ABSTRACT: In calf rearing, the first weeks of life are critical and associated with the highest mortality due to enteric and respiratory diseases. A well-implemented hygiene management can help to protect calves' health preventively by reducing the load of pathogenic bacteria and interrupting infection chains. The aim of this study was to identify deficiencies in hygiene management of individually housed dairy calves by surveying current practice and examining feeding and housing equipment with different hygiene indicators. On 11 farms, different locations in 2 pens or hutches for individual calf rearing prepared for restocking and 2 feeding buckets per farm, including the inner and outer surfaces of artificial teats, were visually scored for cleanliness and sampled with swabs (housing equipment: n

SUBMITTER: Heinemann C 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7799592 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature