Estimation of perinatal mortality in dairy calves: A review

Publication date: Available online 16 August 2019Source: The Veterinary JournalAuthor(s): Emma Cuttance, Richard LavenAbstractDairy calf mortality is of interest worldwide as animal welfare continues to increase in importance to the consumer. This review summarises overall estimations of perinatal mortality from published literature, then further explores the limitations of each publication as well as its applicability, and challenges faced in use of the generated data for comparisons. The first limitation is the definition of perinatal mortality. There is no agreed definition of the period over which perinatal mortality can occur and, depending on the source, estimates may include late-gestation abortions and deaths up to 48 h. In 26 studies identified by the literature search, 11 explicitly mentioned that they excluded abortion, by excluding calvings with too short a gestation length, or in a situation where calves were born in a tight cluster, excluded calvings that were more than 3 weeks prior to the planned start of calving. One study separated out the stillbirth percentage and abortion percentage. One study stated that abortion was included in their perinatal mortality data, and the remaining 13 studies included stillbirth but never mentioned any exclusion criteria for abortion. Seventeen studies measured mortality up to 24 h or less, six up to 48 h and three had unknown time periods. The second issue is study design. Of the 26 studies, seven were prospective stud...
Source: The Veterinary Journal - Category: Veterinary Research Source Type: research