Cryptosprodiosis treatments in naturally infected dairy calves

Abstract

Our objective was to evaluate therapeutic alternatives on body weight(BW), days (d) until diarrhea onset, and duration of the diarrheaepisodes in Holstein calves naturally infected with Cryptosporidiumparvum (confirmed by Kinyoun stain). Dairy calves (n = 87) fromeutocic calvings were included in this experiment. Calves were fed 4L of colostrum within 4 h of birth, after which they were individuallyhoused with free access to water and starter and fed 6 L of whole milkdaily in 2 meals. In the 8th week of life, they were abruptly weaned.Calves were blocked according to dam parity number and calving date,and distributed in the following treatments (n = 29 per treatment): 1.Calves treated orally with halofuginone lactate 0.5% from d 2 to 9 oflife (HL; orally 100 μg/kg BW; Halocur MSD); 2. Calves supplementedat birth, 21 and 56 d, with a commercial injectable solution of microelementsand vitamins (MV; copper, zinc, manganese, selenium, vitamin Aand E; subcutaneous 1mL/50kg BW of each one, ADAPTADOR MIN/ ADAPTADORVIT, Biogenesis Bagó); 3. Control group (CTL). Dailymilk and starter intake was recorded. Visual appraisal fecal score (from1 to 5; where a score = 3 was considered diarrhea) was registered everyday since birth. Weekly, and before the morning feeding, calves wereweighed until the 9th week of life. Data were analyzed as a randomizedcomplete-block design using a mixed model. There was a tendency (P =0.09) on when the first episode of diarrhea was observed (9.6, 8.3, and7.7 ± 0.58 d for HL, MV, and CTL, respectively). The duration of firstepisode of diarrhea was shorter in HL group (4.5, 6.7, and 8.7 ± 1.17 dfor HL, MV and CTL, respectively; P < 0.01). However, HL group hada greater number of total episodes (3.3, 1.9, and 2.2 ± 0.3 episodes forHL, MV, and CTL, respectively; P < 0.01) although of shorter durationthan in the other treatments (3.4, 6.8, and 5.3 ± 0.48 d for HL, MV, andCTL, respectively; P < 0.01). Feed intake was greater for HL calves(1.16, 1.05, and 1.1 ± 0.07 kg/d for HL, MV, and CTL, respectively;P = 0.04). Although BW was not influenced by treatment (P = 0.25).Treating calves with HL can improve some fecal parameters and improvesome growing features during the milk-feeding period.