Associations between Ultrasonographically Diagnosed Lung Lesions, Clinical Parameters and Treatment Frequency in Veal Calves in an Austrian Fattening Farm.

This study evaluated the significance and predictive value of ultrasonographic and physical examination on arrival at an Austrian fattening farm. Treatment frequency and average daily weight gain (ADG) were related to physical and ultrasonographic examination results. Additionally, the effect of an intranasal vaccination in half of the examined calves was studied. The clinical and ultrasonographic health status 600 calves was recorded at the beginning and end of fattening. Half of the calves received an intranasal vaccination (Bovalto® Respi Intranasal). Overall, 44.5% showed an abnormal respiratory scoring (RS) and 56.0% showed signs of respiratory diseases in transthoracic ultrasonography (TUS) at arrival on the farm. For both RS and TUS, a categorization between ILL and HEALTHY was conducted. Results showed lower ADG in ILL calves (RS median: 0.93 kg/d; TUS median: 0.96 kg/d) compared to HEALTHY calves (RS median: 1.01 kg/d; TUS median: 1.01 kg/d). The median ADG was lower in not treated and ILL calves (RS median 0.90 kg/d; TUS: 0.93 kg/d) compared to treated and ILL calves (RS median 1.01 kg/d; TUS: 1.02 kg/d). Vaccination did not affect growth performance or occurrence of ILL, though treatment frequency was lower in VAC calves (17.0% in NVAC; 11.3% in VAC). The implementation of examination protocols for respiratory diseases may have a positive impact on production parameters (e.g., treatment frequency and ADG).

Diagnostic and Prognostic Value of Clinical Scoring and Lung Ultrasonography to Assess Pulmonary Lesions in Veal Calves.

This study on veal calf respiratory disease assessed the association between an on-farm clinical scoring system and lung ultrasonography with the postmortem inspection of the lungs. The comparisons allowed the calculation of predictive values of the diagnostic methods. In total, 600 calves on an Austrian veal calf farm were examined at the beginning and the end of the fattening period. Overall, the area under the curve (AUC) for ultrasonographic scores was 0.90 (rsp = 0.78) with a sensitivity (Se) of 0.86. The specificity (Sp) was 0.78, and the positive predictive value (PPV) was 0.74. The AUC for the physical examination was 0.76 (rsp = 0.55) with a Se of 0.64, an Sp of 0.81, and a PPV of 0.69. For the combination of ultrasonography and physical examination, an AUC curve of 0.85 (rsp = 0.69) was calculated. A Se of 0.65 and a Sp of 0.88 with a PPV of 0.73 was calculated. This study concluded that both physical and ultrasonographic examination scoring are reliable examination methods for the detection of lung diseases in veal calves.