Use of antibiotics to prevent calf diarrhea and septicemia
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.21423/bovine-vol37no2p137-142Keywords:
antibiotics, calves, chlortetracycline, diarrhoea, disease control, disease prevention, drug therapy, feed conversion efficiency, growth rate, labelling controls, mortality, neomycin, newborn animals, oral administration, oxytetracycline, reviews, septicaemia, tetracycline, aminoglycoside antibiotics, tetracyclinesAbstract
This article reviews certain studies related to the use of antimicrobial agents to prevent calf diarrhoea and septicaemia, and discusses whether prophylactic administration of antibiotics in neonatal calves is effective and indicated. Orally administered chlortetracycline, oxytetracycline, tetracycline, and neomycin have label claims in the USA for the control or aid in the control of calf diarrhoea caused by bacteria susceptible to the antibiotic. Chlortetracycline and oxytetracycline (0.15 to 6.0 mg/lb [0.32 to 13.2 mg/kg], q 24 h, PO) are efficient in preventing calf diarrhoea and increasing growth rate in milk-fed calves, and chlortetracycline (3 mg/lb [7 mg/kg], q 12 h, PO) is efficient in decreasing mortality when administered to prevent diarrhoea in neonatal calves. There are no antibiotics with a label claim for prevention of calf septicaemia. Because of the apparent lack of efficacy studies for tetracycline and neomycin, and because extra-label use of drugs for routine disease prevention and for increasing weight gain and feed efficiency in calves is prohibited under the Animal Medicinal Drug Use Clarification Act (AMDUCA) of 1994, only oral chlortetracycline or oxytetracycline should be administered to prevent calf diarrhoea.
