Vol. 11, Special Issue 7 (2022)

Author(s):
Garima Kansal, Hitesh, Amit Kumar and Vandana Yadav

Abstract:
Calf mortality is one of the important problems of calf rearing in dairy farms worldwide. Successful cattle production system encompasses the ability to develop healthy calves for both in economic and animal welfare points of view. Generally, early calf mortality reduces the replacement stock in any herd and thus it causes genetic loss due to reduced possibility of selection, and thereby yielded less genetic gain. A wide variety of infectious agents and lack of scientific management practices can cause mortality and reduced growth rate in the calf. There is an urgent need to educate the dairy farmers about the importance of rearing calves in terms of economic profitability. A combination of scientific practices and proper care of the dam during last phase of pregnancy, intensive care of calf after birth, improved managemental practices like feeding, housing and health care will help in solving the problem of calf mortality to a great extent.