COW SERUM AS A SUBSTITUTE FOR COLOSTRUM IN NEW-BORN CALVES

Abstract

The serum of a normal lactating cow when injected into calves a few hours after birth saved only two out of five calves so treated. Serum added to the milk of the first two meals saved three out of five. When the two methods were combined and the serum was both injected and fed all five calves so treated survived as normal calves. These figures to be significant should be compared with the controls of both series. Since the beginning of this investigation twelve out of thirteen colostrum-fed calves have survived and only four out of fifteen from which colostrum has been withheld. In those that died the serum whether fed or injected protected the internal organs against the invasion and multiplication of Bacillus coli and other intestinal types and in this respect its protective action is equivalent to that of colostrum in those calves which die of spontaneous scours.