In the spring of 1978, contagious calf diarrhea occurred in a dairy herd in Hokkaido. It induced severe diarrhea, dehydration, depression, and anorexia. From the beginning 6 calves died one after another. Two agents were isolated from them and identified as Bovine rotavirus and enterotoxigenic
Escherichia coli.
Colostrum and pooled milk supplemented with antibiotics were given orally to 8 neonatal calves. As a results, seven calves, which had been born in the early period of the outbreak, were affected with only mild diarrhea. All of them recovered later, except one which died. Four calves born later were not affected at all. Changes in antibody titer against bovine rotavirus were observed in the sera of calves. The antibody titers of pre- and post- sera increased significantly in 4 of the 7 calves. but decreased in the latter 4 calves.
It was concluded that colostrum and pooled milk conferred lactogenic immunity to neonatal calves.
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