Ruminants

Due to the physiology and structure of ruminants, their health issues are also unique. Therefore, ruminants require special care and handling to maintain optimal health, high productivity, and longevity.

Most ruminant diseases are seasonally prevalent. For instance, winter is dominated by respiratory diseases and summer by heat stress, both of which result in economic consequences such as low productivity and fertility.

Other stress factors like high production, animal transportation, and regrouping of bull calves combined with aggressiveness, parasitic pressure, and many other stressors can lead to devastating economic losses.

Calving season also has its share of problems, such as high calf/lamb mortality due to serious protozoal infestation (e.g., coccidiosis and cryptosporidiosis) and bacterial diarrhea (colibacillosis and salmonellosis). During calving time, dairy animals become highly susceptible to clinical and subclinical forms of mastitis and metabolic disorders such as ketosis.

Professional farm management can safely bridge such situations, which leads to lower mortality/culling rates of these highly valuable breeding animals.