Characteristics of failure of passive transfer at the herd level using the serum immunoglobulin G concentration as an indicator on dairy farms in eastern Hokkaido, Japan

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to conduct a survey of failure-of-passive-transfer (FPT) in eastern Hokkaido Japan, to evaluate the association between herd-level FPT and death and culling or treatment, and to test the effectiveness of monitoring using herd-level FPT. A total of 4,411 Holstein and Holstein-Wagyu crossbreds calves born from Holstein dams during the year beginning April 2, 2019 on 39 dairy farms were included in the study to investigate death-and-culling and the treatment rate during the first month of life, as well as rearing management up to 3 weeks of age. A subset of Holsteins (n=381) was included in the study for passive transfer and farms were diagnosed as having FPT if more than 20% of newborn calves had serum IgG levels below 10 g/L at the herd level. The prevalence of FPT (<IgG 10 g/L) on farms was significantly correlated (r=0.27, P<0.05) with the death-and-culling rate. Binomial logistic regression analysis showed that FPT farms had a significantly higher risk of being high death-and-culling farms than non-FPT farms (odds ratio: 5.20, P<0.05), emphasizing the importance of colostrum feeding. Farms not using frozen stored colostrum had a significantly higher risk of being FPT farms than those that did (odds ratio: 4.13, P<0.05), emphasizing the importance of feeding colostrum from the dam. Monitoring herd-level FPT was useful in assessing whether the problem of calf death and culling lies in passive transfer.

Keywords: dairy; failure of passive transfer (FPT); herd level; immunoglobulin G (IgG).

Fig. 1.

Scatter plot and approximate curve of serum total protein (TP) concentrations (g/dL) and serum immunoglobulin G (IgG) concentrations (g/L) in 381 Holstein calves from 39 farms.