Colostrum Management for Healthy Calf Development

This presentation will provide an update on a talk that has been given on the topic at the 2016 forum. It will present the latest scientific evidence on the complex and manifold effects of colostrum on the calf's development, including new thresholds for colostrum quality and colostrum management testing. Further topics will be animal welfare and calf health aspects of early life nutrition as well as housing and husbandry of the dairy calf. Finally, the talk will detail what we know about the impact of therapeutical or subtherapeutical levels of oral antibiotics on the calf's microbiom and on the development of bactiria wit antibiotic resistencies. Also, there will be evidence-besed advice on how antibiotic use in calf rearing can be reduced.