Calves with Sam

There aren't bacteria in MY colostrum.

Why do we try to deny things that we don't want to believe? A national study of colostrum revealed this about "total plate counts":

• fresh samples 33% above 100,000 cfu/ml
• frozen samples 39%  above 100,000 cfu/ml
• refrigerated samples 77% above 100,000 cfu/ml

Not impressed yet?

• fresh samples 12% above 1,000,000 cfu/ml
• frozen samples 11% above 1,000,000 cfu/ml
• refrigerated samples 38% above 1,000,000 cfu/ml

If we feed 4 quarts of colostrum contaminated with 1,000,000 cfu/ml bacteria to a newborn calf we have just fed 3,860,000,000 bacteria in her first feeding.

Now you can see why the first two questions I ask when trouble shooting scours problems on a farm is, "When was the last time you cultured "as-fed" colostrum samples for bacteria?" and "May I see the results?"  

When was the last time you sampled "as-fed" colostrum and had it cultured for bacteria.

Go to http://www.atticacows.com/documentView.asp?docID=2082  for a protocol for collecting colostrum samples.  
Go to http://www.atticacows.com/documentView.asp?docID=2112 for bacteria standards for colostrum.  
Go to http://www.calfnotes.com/pdffiles/CN163.pdf for another summary about bacterial contamination of colostrum.