RVC seeks veterinary collaboration for UK dairy herd study

Researchers at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) are seeking to enrol veterinary practices as they begin a study to determine and benchmark individual and herd-level passive transfer status across dairy herds within the UK. This is the first study to examine the issue from a UK wide perspective and will provide the largest amount of information to date which will inform best practice and benefit both farmers and vets. Colostrum is essential for the provision of maternally derived antibodies to a new-born calf. This process, known as passive transfer, ensures that neonatal calves are given a degree of immune protection during early life. Within the UK, the prevalence of failure of passive transfer at the individual-calf level remains high, evidenced by recent studies in Scotland and Southern England. However, existing studies are limited to a relatively low number of farms, all located within a specific region, making extrapolation to a national context difficult. The study, led by RVC PhD candidate George Lindley, will harvest and compile prospective total protein data routinely collected by practitioners from calves between one and seven days old.