Authors: А. Р. PORYVAEVA, doctor of biological sciences, leading researcher,
A. S. KRASNOPEROV, candidate of veterinary sciences, senior researcher,
O. G. TOMSKIKH, candidate of veterinary sciences, senior researcher,
Ya. Yu. LYSOVA, researcher, Ural Federal Agrarian Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences (112A Belinskogo Str., 620142, Ekaterinburg)
Keywords: calves, dyspepsia, complications, risks, scale of assessment of physiological state.
Abstract. To ensure the food security of the Russian Federation, the problem of the conservation and rational use of the biological potential of farm animals is one of the priorities. The conditions of development of calves in 1 month of life is determined by both the health and productive longevity of cattle. In the nosological structure of the pathology of young cattle one of the first places is occupied by gastrointestinal diseases. Questions assessing the risk of developing complications in calves with gastrointestinal diseases in veterinary practice always remain relevant. Firstly, it is connected with the population health of the livestock of young stock as a whole, secondly, with the expediency of spending on treatment and preventive measures in the agricultural organization. The non-metric system of «integral indicators» characterizing the clinical course of these diseases was developed by us for the rapid tracking of trends indicating the risk of complications. It included an assessment of the severity of signs of dehydration (exsiccosis) of the body of calves and the qualitative characteristics of their feces. The combination of non-metric «integral indicators», expressed in points, represented a rating scale from «calf healthy» to «criti- cal condition with a poor prognosis». In the examined animals (n=50), the use of a scale for assessing the physiological state of calves with dyspepsia of various genesis allowed for an in-depth analysis of the clinical indicators of the disease, identifying the risk groups for developing complications and adverse outcomes of the disease. It was shown that the examined calves with a background total coefficient of 22–23 points on the scale of assessing the severity of signs of dehydration (exsiccosis) of the body and the qualitative characteristics of their feces are practically healthy. In calves with a background total coefficient of 18–21 points, disorders of the physiological state caused by the disease were minimal, the probability of a favorable outcome («recovery») by the 14th day was 52.4 %. Calves with a background total coefficient of 14–17 points were assigned to the risk group for the development of complications and adverse outcomes of the disease. In 23.8 % of cases, animals were stunted, in 52.4 % of cases, calves were diagnosed with dysbacteriosis. The death of calves was observed in 9.5% of cases.
