Characteristics of diarrhoea with Escherichia coli as the major cause in new born calves having adequate serum immunoglobulin concentration

Abstract

The present study was undertaken on 80 clinical cases of diarrhoeic calves of either sex, aged under 4 months, from an organized dairy herd. Feeding and management conditions at the farm were found adequate with regular deworming and feeding of colostrum @ 1/1 Oth of body weight starting within 3-4 h of birth until 3 days. All the diarrhoeic calves had normal serum immunoglobulin concentration of> 16 mg/m!. Significantly higher incidence ofdiarrhoea was noticed in the age groups of 1-2 months (37.50%), followed by I-IS days (31.25%), 15 days- 1 month (J 6.25%) and 2-4 months (15.00%). Sex and breed of calves did significantly influence the incidence of diarrhoea. Semisolid to watery faeces, along with significant depression, dehydration and reduced appetite were the notable clinical characteristics of the calves suffering from moderate degree of diarrhoea. The faeces were yellow to green having, in majority of cases, offensive odour while the laboratory examination of faecal samples ruled out parasitic cause for the diarrhoea, the cultural exammation of rectal swabs confirmed the presence of enteropathogenic Escherichia coli as the causative organism in 68.75% ofdiarrhoeic calves./n vitro drug sensitivity testing of iso tated Escherichia coli revealed cotrimazine (sulfadiazine+trimethoprim) to be highly effective (4+).