Neonatal calves are commonly affected by diarrhea caused by different pathogens, but not always bacteria. Yet, antibiotics are routinely used as a treatment to an unknown extent. It was our goal to survey antibiotic use for the treatment of neonatal calf diarrhea in different countries and to identify influencing factors. A total of 873 farmers and veterinarians in Austria, Belgium, Portugal, and Scotland participated in a voluntary online survey. The data were analyzed using classification and regression tree analyses and chi² tests. Overall, 52.5% of the participants stated that they use antibiotics when treating neonatal calf diarrhea. Of those, 27% use them always, and 45% use highest priority critically important antibiotics. The most important factor differentiating antibiotic use practices was the country the participants were from, which could be due to regulatory differences between the countries. All antibiotic products stated were licensed for use in cattle, but several were not licensed for the treatment of diarrhea in calves. Our study shows that there is an urgent need for more scientific evidence to define best practices for the treatment of neonatal calf diarrhea. Furthermore, consensual criteria for antibiotic therapy must be defined, and targeted training for farmers and veterinarians must be provided.

In ruminants, the main documented clinical manifestation of aluminium (Al) intoxication is similar to grass tetany. In a 50 dairy cow Belgian herd, the farmer reported excessive uterine bleeding at calving and decreased milk production. Dairy cows received a mixed ration (MR) with high Al concentration (453 ppm/kg of dry matter (DM)). Various analyses were sampled from 10 sick cows and compared with 10 healthy cows (from another herd). Sick cows presented anaemia and marginal hypozincaemia and 6/10 showed subclinical ketosis. Their urine analysis revealed hypomagnesaemia and a high Al/creatinine ratio. It was advised to determine soil pH, add salts to the ration to chelate the Al and support cows with mineral supplements and propylene glycol. A visit was carried out 2 years later and highlighted an improvement in the situation, but all examined animals presented subclinical ketosis. Grass silage Al content remained high (700 ppm/kg DM), as did butyric acid concentration (11.22 g/kg DM). Al could be incriminated at different stages: micronutrient deficiencies, anaemia and negative energy balance. However, Al was probably not the only culprit. This case report is a concern for future years in these areas due to droughts, scarcity of forage and an increase in contaminated soil ingestion.

Belgian blue (BB) cattle have an 11-bp deletion in myostatin that causes skeletal muscle hyperplasia and increased muscle mass, leading to a ‘double-muscled’ phenotype. Preliminary data suggest that this phenotype may be associated with breed-specific hematologic and biochemical values. Therefore, in this study, we sought to compare hematologic and serum biochemical parameters in healthy BB and Holstein Friesian (HF) cows and to propose breed-specific reference intervals for BB cows. Hematologic parameters, total protein, creatinine, creatine kinase (CK) and aspartate transaminase (AST) activities, albumin, and globulins were measured in 183 clinically healthy adult BB and HF cows. There were significant differences between BB and HF cows in 17 of 27 measured parameters. BB cows had significantly higher creatinine concentration and CK and AST activities (p < 0.001). RBCs, hemoglobin, hematocrit (p < 0.001), MCV and lymphocytes (p < 0.05) were also significantly higher in BB cows compared with HF cows. The average N/L ratio was greater than 1 in both breeds. These results suggest that BB and HF cows have significantly different clinically relevant hematologic and serum biochemical values, and, therefore, breed-specific reference intervals should be used.

While thyroid physiology has been studied in domestic ruminants, many uncertainties remain. In fact, this metabolism is rarely assessed in routine veterinary practice, and diseases of the thyroid gland or its metabolism are poorly documented in domestic ruminants. This scoping review aims to summarize current knowledge in anatomy, physiology, diseases, and diagnostic methods related to thyroid function in domestic ruminants. A structured research methodology was followed using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) extension for scoping reviews. Four databases were used: CAB Abstracts, Embase, PubMed and Scopus. Selection and screening process of the identified studies, as well as data extraction, were managed using Covidence software. Finally, 206 studies were included. Most studies involved cattle (n = 104), followed by sheep (n = 65) and goats (n = 28). The main study topic was on thyroid physiology (n = 127), followed by diseases (n = 48), diagnostic methods (n = 22) and histology (n = 9). Although many studies addressed the anatomy and physiology of the thyroid gland, few confirmed the euthyroid status (having a normally functioning thyroid gland) of these animals, warranting cautious interpretation of the results. Hypothyroidism is the most documented thyroid disease in ruminants, predominantly caused by iodine deficiency. The physiology of the thyroid gland has been extensively studied in relation to heat stress, reproduction, animal production and nutrition. However, there is much less literature available on diseases described in domestic ruminants and their diagnostic methods. Diagnostic tools for assessing thyroid metabolism in ruminants include assays for total thyroxine, total triiodothyronine, bovine thyroid stimulating hormone, total serum iodine, milk iodine, urine iodine, and plasmatic inorganic iodine.

Little is known about thyroid diseases in ruminants, probably due to the lack of diagnosis techniques developed in this species. However, thyroid ultrasound (TU) is widely used in human and in companion animal’s medicine. It is a cheap and non-invasive examination, which allows for the identification of thyroid structures or diffuse diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the accuracy of TU in five calves and five cows through inter- and intra-observer repeatability. The size of the thyroid gland was measured from three views: left sagittal, right sagittal and transverse; nine measurements per view. The intra-observer coefficient was calculated for each observer. For the inter-observer, the first observer was a board-certified imagist (European College of Veterinary Diagnostic Imaging diplomate), the second was a board-certified specialist in bovine and herd management (European College of Bovine Health Managementdiplomate) and the third was an in-trained veterinarian for the TU. They each scanned the thyroid gland successively, following the same method. The intra-observer variabilities for observers 1, 2 and 3 were 8.22%, 5.53%, 5.38%, and 7.18%, 8.65% and 6.36%, respectively, for calves and cows. The inter-observer variability for calves was 10.4% and for cows, 11.8%. This study confirms the feasibility of repeatable intra- and inter-observer TU-estimated measurements in cattle.