An Investigation on Calf Welfare, Management and Disease Prevalence at Dairy Farms in Chattogram

Abstract

Bangladesh is a densely populated country and to quench the demand of milk, many dairy farms are established. Calves are the off-springs of the dairy cows and a future stock for a farm, hence their management, welfare and diseases should be of great concern for the farmers. A survey of calf management practices that might affect welfare and their health was performed on 15 dairy farms. The results showed that the mean value of years of farming is 7.6 ± 1.26 where the mean value of total number of animals and calves were 29.67± 5.85 and 9.27± 1.68, respectively. All the studied farms don’t have any grazing area and only 6.67% of farms have dedicated space and open space for dairy calves. All the farmers relied on the dam to provide colostrum 3 or 4 times in a day and allowed calf to drink from udder but none checked colostrum quality or passive transfer of immunity and 6.67% of farms give milk replacer to their calves. About 86.67% of farms weaned their calves at different ages and did not perform disbudding of their calves. Calves from 80% of farms suffered fromdiarrhea, 40% have naval ill and pneumonia and 33.33% of farms have ectoparasitic infestation in the one-year time. In a nutshell, the welfare, management and the disease prevention status of the studied farms were not optimum which caused calf mortality and may cause plummeting farm profit. Hence, the farmers are needed to be well aware about the calf welfare and proper management.