Rotavirus and Coronavirus: The unfortunate duo.

Last month we covered cryptosporidium parvum in our article about scours. While C. Parvum is definitely near the top of the list for calf health scour challenges, tied for second place are rotavirus and coronavirus. 

First, let’s talk about the similarities between rotavirus and coronavirus. Both of these diseases cause diarrhea or scours in calves. Rotavirus and coronavirus make up around 60% of scour cases in Rotavirus and coronavirus are both viruses (hence their name!). That is important to always keep in the back of your mind when talking and thinking about these two diseases, because with viruses especially, prevention is ALWAYS better than treatment. There is no treatment for a virus, only time consuming, expensive, supportive therapy. While antibiotics may help prevent a secondary bacterial infection because of the calf having a run down system from having a virus, antibiotics do not work against viruses.

While they do have some similarities, there are some key differences that we need to discuss so we will cover them each in their own section. 

Calves are typically infected with rotavirus within the first week of life, but they also should have additional protection from their colostrum within that time frame. One thing to consider when talking about colostrum offering protection against rotavirus is, do your cows and heifers have the right tools to create the colostrum the calf needs? If you are struggling with rotavirus or coronavirus, something you could talk to your vet about would be adding in a dry cow vaccine to help the cow or heifer put those antibodies into her colostrum. While a good colostrum program is key, there are other places where Rotavirus can sneak in. 

Another place rotavirus can have an opportunity to infect a calf is through fecal-oral contact. This could come from the cow in the maternity pen or from another calf. This is one of the many reasons why it’s so important to separate the cow and calf as fast as possible and to keep the maternity pen as clean as you can. This will help reduce the chances of disease.

Something that has been implemented with high success on many farms is spraying down the maternity pen lightly with DK-ll solution between each calving to help reduce disease pressure in the calving pens. Even if cleaning the pen out every few calvings isn’t a realistic option, this is one small and easy step to take to reduce the chances of spreading disease to calves from the maternity pen. 

Moo-ving on to coronavirus, calves are typically infected with coronavirus within the first 14 days of life. In addition to coronavirus causing scours in calves, it can also cause respiratory diseases, as you likely know, because of the human version of this disease. Coronavirus and rotavirus typically like to hang out together, so whenever you have one the other is likely around. 

We recently pulled fecal samples on 5 calves, and they all came back with rotavirus. It was the first time ever that we had results that were that clean cut. Next, we came up with our plan of action. It was also interesting because many times rotavirus and coronavirus come as a pair, but not in this case! None of the calves we checked came back positive for coronavirus. 

First, we implemented a 30mL drench of Surveillance on arrival to our farm (when the calves are 1-24 hours old) . The second thing we did was add another 30mL drench of Surveillance on day 5 to help them get over the 7-10 day scour period. The third thing we did was start spraying the pens down 1-2 times per week or when we noticed more than 1-2 calves scouring per pen with DK-ll mixed at 1oz DK-ll/gallon of water to help disease pressure. Lastly, and by far the most important, is we checked in with the dairy to make sure they were using the DK-ll to the full protocol in the maternity pen. They had a meeting to remind their guys to use it after every calving and the difference from one day to the next was unbelievable. 

One thing that is important to mention is, we don’t have control of the calf for the first hours of her life, so we aren’t able to control dry cow vaccines or the maternity pen, so we have to manage around those two facts, but we do still give maternity pen suggestions that are typically taken into consideration!

With this combination in our calf program, we have gone from 100% of calves scouring at day 7-14 to less than 30%, and while that’s not perfect, it’s a huge improvement. The ripple effect from the decrease in scours has also been a decrease in respiratory related treatments down the line. 

If you want to learn more about how DK-ll & Surveillance help manage both rotavirus and coronavirus, follow the links below!