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Relation between diarrhea and infection by protozoans in dairy calves

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Abstract

Infections caused by protozoa often cause diarrhea in newborn calves, leading to high economic losses to dairy farms, diarrhea, often characterized by malabsorption of nutrients, may lead to malnutrition, weight loss, and high mortality rates. Diarrhea is a common clinical sign found in the first days of a calf life in many dairy and beef cattle farms. Therefore, the aim of our study was to verify if during the first 60 days of live, there was a relationship between the presence of Eimeria, Cryptosporidium, Giardia, and the occurrence of diarrhea in calves, and the association of age and parasite presence. In this study, newborn calves were selected from farms with history of protozoa infections and diarrhea. A total of 26 calves were used in the study, 18 were positives for Giardia spp., 17 for Emeria spp., and 21 for Cryptosporidium spp., considering single and mixed infections. Furthermore, the survival rate of calves due to the presence of diarrhea was significantly different compared to the group without diarrhea, for all three protozoa. In addition, according to this study, it is possible to indicate that the occurrence of diarrhea is highly correlated to the presence of Giardia sp., leading to economic losses due to a low performance and weight gain of infected animals.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Animal Science, Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC), Chapecó, Santa Catarina (SC), Brazil

    Patrícia Glombowsky, Aleksandro Schafer da Silva, Andreia Volpato, Natan Marcos Soldá, Gabriela Campigotto, Gabriela Miotto Galli & Daiane da Silva Santos

  2. Department of Animal Science, University of Santa Catarina State, 680 D, Beloni Trombeta Zanin Street, Chapecó, Santa Catarina (SC), 89815-630, Brazil

    Aleksandro Schafer da Silva

  3. Graduate Program of Animal Science, UDESC, Chapecó, Santa Catarina (SC), Brazil

    Aleksandro Schafer da Silva & Juscivete Fátima Fávero

  4. Department of Veterinary Population Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, USA

    Gustavo Machado

Authors
  1. Patrícia Glombowsky
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  2. Aleksandro Schafer da Silva
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  3. Andreia Volpato
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  4. Natan Marcos Soldá
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  5. Gabriela Campigotto
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  6. Gabriela Miotto Galli
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  7. Juscivete Fátima Fávero
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  8. Daiane da Silva Santos
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  9. Gustavo Machado
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Aleksandro Schafer da Silva.

Ethics declarations

The present study was approved by the Ethics Committee for Use of Animals (CEUA) of Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina, under protocol number 1.26.15.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Glombowsky, P., da Silva, A.S., Volpato, A. et al. Relation between diarrhea and infection by protozoans in dairy calves. Comp Clin Pathol 26, 929–933 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-017-2467-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00580-017-2467-6

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