Calf health problems in dairy farms

Population growth, urbanization, and income growth that fuelled the increase in meat and milk consumption in the recent decades has created enormous growth in livestock production which is coined as a Livestock Revolution. Globally, livestock production has responded to increasing demand primarily through a shift from extensive, small and subsistence livestock production systems towards more intensive and large scale commercial production units. With this shift come new technical problems. Calf morbidity and mortality are important problems that accompany intensification in dairy production. This work reviews calf health problems in dairy farms in general, and specifically quantifies calf morbidity and mortality and identifies their causes and risk factors primarily based on small holder commercially oriented intensive dairy farms in Central Ethiopia. The finding of the study informs farmers and herd health managers about the degree of the problem and what has to be done to mitigate the problem. The findings and recommendations are applicable to areas of similar production settings. It may be of also interest for researchers in the field on methodological and analytical grounds.