Evaluation Of Immunological Status Of Calves Suffered From Diarrhea Under Field Condition

The objective of the present work was to evaluate some innate immune responses associated with neonatal calves' diarrhoea before and after treatment either with antibiotics or antibiotics plus fluid therapy. The experiment carried out on sixty diarrheic and 15 non-diarrheic healthy calves (from15 up to 45 days of age). According to fever, the diarrheic calves divided into two main groups, febrile and non-febrile diarrheic calves. Then according to the type of receiving therapy, each main group is subdivided into two subgroups, receiving antibiotic or antibiotic plus Digeston© for five days. The most common pathogens isolated from both groups of febrile diarrheic calves were E. coli (93.3%) and Campylobacter spp.(26.7%). The results showed that febrile diarrheic calves had a significant increase (p< 0.05) in phagocytic activity; lysozyme; nitric oxide (NO); haptoglobin (HP); total protein (TP) and albumin as well as a significant decrease in immunoglobulin G (IgG) compared to control group. While in non-febrile diarrheic calves, there was a significant increase (p< 0.05) in HP; TP and albumin. By treatment, both therapies modulate the innate immune response to approach control value. It was clear that the antibiotic plus digeston© have much better results. It can be concluded that the lysozyme assay serves as a confirmatory test to differentiate between infectious and non-infectious diarrhoea of neonatal calves.  Using IgG assay as a screening test may be essential to ensure that calves receive adequate colostrum early in life.