Comparison of Colostrum Quality and Immune Status in Neonatal Dairy Calves in Debrezeit Agricultural Research Center

Abstract

A study was conducted in Debrezeit agricultural research center from November 2008 to April 2009 to measure colostrums quality and total serum protein in neonatal calves to evaluate the extent of passive immunity transfer. A total of 40 dairy cows (Borana *Holstein=12, Barca*Holstein=27 and Borana =1) were used for the study. The colostrums were collected from 40 cows to measure the colostrum quality using colostrometer. According to quality grading the first milked colostrum from 33 cows were classified as superior quality, where as colostrum milked from 6 cows with moderate quality and only one with inferior quality. From the second milked colostrums from 24 cows were superior quality, from 15 cows were moderate and only 1 cow was inferior in quality grading standard. From the two local breeds (Borana and Barca) crosses included in the study the mean 1st and 2nd milked colostrum quality for Borana crosses was superior to that of Barca crosses at the  1^st milked colostrum but Barca crosses was superior to Borana at the 2^nd milked colostrum quality .The overall mean of 1^st and 2^nd colostrum quality were 84.5mg/ml and 78.9 mg/ml both are classified under the superior quality category. There was also great variation was observed in volume of individually milked 1^st and 2^nd colostrum which range from 0.5 to 6 liter respectively. Blood samples were collected before colostrum feeding after 6 hours and 24 hours  after colostrums feeding from both groups calves (suckle and fed from bucket ) for total serum protein analysis. The calf serum protein analysis result has shown that mean total serum protein before colostrums feeding after 1^st and 2^nd feeding were 5.3g/dl, 6.4g/dl and 7.8g/dl, respectively. However the bucket feeding group had significant (6.72g/dl: p<0.05) higher mean total serum protein level than suckling group (6.08g/dl) during consecutive sampling. Analysis made by sodium sulfite on calf serum analysis before colostrum feeding in bucket feeding group has shown that 42.8% lower, 42.9% medium and 14% higher total serum protein levels respectively.

Keywords: Colostrum, Immunoglobulin, Calves, Breed. Parity and Colostometer.