Maureen Prendergast, a veterinary specialist with Schering Plough Animal Health made the call for more rigid precautions to prevent the scour on the 9,400 dairy and suckler farms in Cork.

“Based on these national figures, 14,000 of the 340,000 calves born on Cork farms next year are at risk of dying.  The most worrying feature in the Department’s report is that calf mortality levels in 2006 were 10% higher than 2005.  This represents a serious erosion of farm income,” said Maureen Prendergast.

“However, on the majority of farms, calf deaths represent only a small proportion of the costs of a scour outbreak.  The biggest costs are treatment, additional labour and reduced animal performance,” said Maureen Prendergast

Scour is the symptom of a disease caused by bacteria and viruses.  E.coli, particularly the lethal pathogen, E.coli K99, is the major bacterial cause while Coronavirus and Rotavirus are the predominant viral causes.  Bacterial infection can hit the calf within a couple of hours after birth. The high risk period for viral infection is five to 10 days after birth.

“Some of these infectious agents can live on the farm for up to nine months. A new-born calf exposed to one or more of these bacteria and viruses will develop diarrhoea, leading to dehydration and risk of death,” she said, before stressing that vaccination of cows prior to calving, combined with effective hygiene and management, are the only effective methods to prevent calf scour.  A vaccine, called Rotavec Corona, is the only product on the market that can protect against E coli K99, Coronavirus and Rotavirus in the one shot.

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