Key Findings
Calves are the future of a dairy herd. However, calves that are sick or born through difficult calvings often do not respond well after birth. Therefore, reducing stress immediately postpartum should improve future calf performance.
Meloxicam did not affect IgG uptake at 6, 18 and 24 hours of age, but it reduced IgG uptake at 12 hours compared to the calves that did not receive meloxicam. No other effects were noted for the IgG data on day one of life. Researchers did not observe any effects of meloxicam treatment on body weight, total feed intake or feed efficiency. However, calves provided with meloxicam tended to consume more starter than the calves that did not receive it.
About the Co-Author
Peter Erickson, Professor of Agriculture, Nutrition, and Food Systems
Contact information: Peter.Erickson@unh.edu
603-862-1341, Peter Erickson Lab website
This research was published in the INSPIRED: A Publication of the New Hampshire Agricultural Experiment Station (Winter 2021)
Researchers: M.O.C. Clark, T.C. Stahl, and P.S. Erickson
Calving can be a stressful time, especially in calves that experience a difficult birth. When a calf experiences dystocia due to stress and potential hypoxia, immunoglobulin (Ig) absorption can be compromised. The NSAID meloxicam has been shown to improve calf vigor, milk intake, weight gain and health due to its ability to relieve the impacts of diarrhea, inflammation, and stress. However, there were no effects on immunoglobulin uptake (Murray et al., 2015 a, b, c). Therefore, this study evaluated adding meloxicam to a colostrum-based colostrum replacer and dosing them separately.
In this study, 30 newborn Holstein calves (16 bulls and 14 heifers) were immediately removed from their dam at calving and fed a colostral-based colostrum replacer (CR) to provide 180 g of IgG. Calves then were separated into three treatment groups, with 10 calves per treatment. The first treatment group received no meloxicam (C). The second received 1 mg/ 2.2 lb. body weight of meloxicam in pill form before CR feeding (PL). The third had 1 mg/2.2 lb. of body weight of meloxicam added to the CR (S). Blood samples were taken at birth, 6, 12, 18 and 24 hours after birth to evaluate IgG uptake. Beginning on day two, calves received a milk replacer containing 24% CP at 12% solids (1.8 L/ feeding, two feedings per day, 432 g of powder per day). Calf starter was available free-choice along with free-choice water. Calves had milk replacer, starter and water intakes measured daily. Weekly body weights and skeletal measures were taken. The study was ended on day 42 of life.
Meloxicam did not affect IgG uptake at 6, 18, and 24 hours of age, but it reduced IgG uptake at 12 hours compared to the calves that did not receive meloxicam. No other effects were noted for the IgG data on day one of life. Of interest, the PL treatment resulted in longer calves compared to the S calves. Researchers did not observe any effects of meloxicam treatment on body weight, total feed intake or feed efficiency. However, calves provided with meloxicam tended to consume more starter (1.23 pounds/day (PL) and 1.13 pounds/day (S)) than the calves that did not receive it (1.00 pounds/day (C)).
Supporting this observation, weekly blood ketone concentrations tended to be greater in meloxicam-treated calves (0.16 mmol/L vs. 0.12 mmol/L). Increasing ketone concentration in adequately fed calves is indicative of enhanced rumen development. This is interesting as meloxicam only has a 26-hour half-life in the body. There may have been some other effect of the meloxicam treatment that was not detected in the parameters measured. More research is necessary to determine the long-term effects of meloxicam supplementation in dairy calves.
Meloxicam is not approved for use without a veterinary prescription in U.S. dairy cattle.
This material is based upon work supported by the NH Agricultural Experiment Station, through joint funding of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, U.S. Department of Agriculture, under award number 1016574, and the state of New Hampshire. Authors include M.O.C. Clark, T.C. Stahl and P.S. Erickson.
