Calves with Sam

Preventing Disease Outbreaks

During a presentation, "Preventing Disease Outbreaks: Records and Oversight," at the NY Calf Congress in Syracuse on Wednesday, December 7, 2016 Dr. Terry Ollivett (School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Wisconsin) reviewed best management practices.

Her list of best management practices included:

• Find out if you are understaffed in the calf barn - is it impacting the ability to detect, treat, or document disease?
• Assess your health event recording system - it is capturing what you need?

• Find opportunities by looking for protocol drift within the records.
• Monitor specific calf-level health outcomes that will direct changes.

• Establish a daily routine for finding individual sick calves.
• Establish a screening examination 2x weekly to identify subtle cases.

• Use fecal and respiratory diagnostics to aid disease management.