Epi. 195 – Epidemiologic Tools for Bovine Respirator Disease Risk Assessment in Dairy Calves

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by guest Dr. Sharif Aly, an epidemiologist at the Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center in Tulare, Calif. Aly graduated from Cairo University and practiced in Egypt before coming to the United States for advanced studies in preventive medicine and epidemiology. His team developed and published the BRD 100 and BRD 10K studies to identify various risk factors for Bovine Respirator Disease (BRD) in dairy calves. 

Aly explains the incidence of BRD in calves and how it has failed to improve despite improvements in tools for detection and prevention. We review the risk of various areas on BRD including colostrum management, housing, season, environment and nutrition. He also discusses the role of on-farm diagnostics and the California and Wisconsin scoring systems that veterinarians can use with producers to manage BRD risk in dairy calves, including the BRD scoring system developed into an app for on-farm use. 

Links:

CA BRD Risk Assessment Brochure (English)

CA BRD Risk Assessment Brochure (Spanish)

UC Davis Veterinary Medicine Teaching and Research Center website

 Epidemiology of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in preweaned calves on California dairies: The BRD 10K study
S.A. Dubrovsky, A.L. Van Eenennaam, B.M. Karle, P.V. Rossitto, T.W. Lehenbauer, S.S. Aly
J Dairy Sci https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2018-14774

A novel risk assessment tool for bovine respiratory disease in preweaned dairy calves
G.U. Maier, W.J. Love, B.M. Karle, T.W. Lehenbauer, A.L. Van Eenennaam, S.S. Aly
J Dairy Sci https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2019-17650