Outbreak of clostridial abomasitis in dairy calves

An outbreak of clostridial abomasitis was diagnosed and described on a Missouri, USA, dairy farm with seasonal parturitions during the fall of 2016. The outbreak comprised 9 fatality cases and 11 clinical cases in calves 4-12 days old. The epidemic event began 10 days after the calving season started. Postmortem examination results reported clostridial abomasitis. Clinical cases were characterised by anorexia, depression, bloat, abdominal distension and yellow-greenish haemorrhagic prestomach contents. The outbreak was resolved in a period of 11 days and was handled by consistently reinforcing and monitoring standard operation procedures of the entire calf operation. Factors such as proper methods of milk replacer preparation and delivery, quality and temperature of water, osmolality, hygiene, tool disinfection and stress proved to be critical in controlling the outbreak in the calf operation.