In the most recent edition of Progressive Dairy, Editor Peggy Coffeen wrote a piece on scanning lung calves to catch pneumonia before it's clinical.
Here is an excerpt from the article:
Some say the secret to success lies within, and Dr. Brandon Debbink would agree that statement rings true when it comes to pre-weaned heifer calves.
By implementing a thoracic ultrasound protocol in young calves, Debbink is helping dairies identify early onset pneumonia long before clinical signs are expressed and providing data for making powerful and profitable herd inventory management decisions.
As a veterinary with Dairy Doctors Veterinary Service based in Plymouth, Wisconsin, Debbink has enrolled several dairies within their clinic in a routine ultrasound program to identify lung lesions in pre-weaned calves.
"The lungs are the rate-limiting organ in the first year of life," Debbink says. That's why scanning the lungs throughout the calf's first weeks is a critical step in diagnosing subclinical pneumonia. Most people don't know how prevalent it is in their herds because they don't have the data to show it," he explains.
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