Identification of infectious agents associated with Bovine Neonatal Diarrhea in the Sabana de Bogotá

Objective. To determine the infectious agents causally associated to Bovine Neonatal Diarrhea (BND) in calves younger than five weeks of age from mixed production and dairy herds of Sabana de Bogota. Materials and methods. Twenty one herds were conveniently selected, and 620 calves were followed from birth up to 5 weeks of age, fecal samples were collected from animals with clinical signs of diarrhea and from calves without diarrhea which were taken as matched controls. ELISA tests were performed to diagnose E. coli F5, Rotavirus, Coronavirus, Salmonella sp, and Cryptosporidium sp, Ritchie test to diagnose Giardia sp., and a modified Ziehl Neelsen staining for Cryptosporidium sp. The epidemiological association between agents and the appearance of diarrhea was evaluated using c2 test, followed by a logistic regression model (p<0.05). Results. The ELISA test showed that 51 (38.3%), 26 (19.7%), 10 (7.5%) and 1 (0.75%) samples were positive for Cryptosporidium sp., rotavirus, E coli F5 and coronavirus, respectively. Animals that were positive for Rotavirus through ELISA and Cryptosporidium sp., through a modified Ziehl Neelsen technique had 2.6 and 7.0 times more probability than other animals to present BND, respectively. Conclusions. The results presented are the first to show the importance of Rotavirus and Cryptosporidium sp., in BND in the Sabana de Bogotá herds and in Colombia.