Failure of Passive Transfer

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Seadna — Wed, 02 Dec 2015 22:07:37 GMT

Yeah Michael I'm slowly learning that too..I can only make myself available to them when they want to come to me. My days of running around chasing cases (where I'm the only party apparently interested in the outcome) are coming to an end I think!

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Michael Woodhouse — Sun, 29 Nov 2015 01:21:22 GMT

That has not been my experience with the colostrometer. I've found it a good discussion point in terms of - use it to check the colostrum is good. To make sure it is working we then need to test some calves. I don't think I've ever gone to a farm specifically to bleed calves, but grab the opportunities when there. Most of our dairy farms have colostrometers - it seem to stimulate interest in colostrum management IMO.

TBH if they don't want your help there is not much you can do. Something I've learnt over the years is to pick winnable battles.

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Seadna — Sat, 28 Nov 2015 21:39:41 GMT

Our rep sent out a colostrometer alright but no refractometer which is no big odds as we have one in the clinic anyway. She more or less told me not to bother with the colostrometer because inevitably the farmer will use it to test his best batch of colostrum, triumphantly report the results to me thus immediately closing the door to investigation and improvement. That has been her experience anyway and I would trust her opinion. Honestly, I'm struggling to get HO's permission to go on-farm to do bloods too so I'm at a bit of a dead end on this one.

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 26 Nov 2015 01:34:09 GMT

[quote user="Seadna "]Many thanks Michael, I have a call in to our local MSD rep :)[/quote]

Any joy?

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Michael Woodhouse — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 00:18:18 GMT

The best combination of sensitivity (88.9%) and specificity (88.9%) was at 8.4% Brix.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24704239

I have a copy of the paper if you want to read it.

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Rachel Brown — Mon, 23 Nov 2015 00:00:18 GMT

[quote user="Michael Woodhouse"]ou need a couple of drops on a calibrated (serum) refractometer. You can also use a Brix refractometer - I can find you a cut off if you need one.[/quote]

Hi Michael

What cutoff do you use for the Brix?

thanks

Rachel

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Seadna — Fri, 20 Nov 2015 12:36:45 GMT

Many thanks Michael, I have a call in to our local MSD rep :)

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 23:47:40 GMT

The MSD campaign is KBYH - keeping Britian's Youngstock Healthy

RE: Failure of Passive Transfer

Michael Woodhouse — Thu, 19 Nov 2015 19:04:50 GMT

You can leave the red tops in a rack to separate. You can draw blood in a 2ml syringe and put in the pet sized paediatric tubes. You can even do them in a PCV tube, snap and dab the serum onto the refractometer.

Cut off for calves is 5.5-5.6g/dl (55-56 g/l). This is for serum.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=Use+of+plasma+samples+to+assess+passive+transfer+in+calves+using+refractometry

Have a read of calfnote #62

http://calfnotes.com/CNcolostrum.htm

You need a couple of drops on a calibrated (serum) refractometer. You can also use a Brix refractometer - I can find you a cut off if you need one.

If you ask your MSD rep they were running a healthy calf project and giving away refractometers (to practices) and colostrometers (to clients). They have some resources on this.

I do quite a lot of these. Calves between 24 hours and 5 days best - will push to 7 if I have to. Avoid sick (dehydrated) calves as their total solids are raised.