Failed Transfer of Passive Immunity is a Component Cause of Pre-Weaning Disease in Beef and Dairy Calves: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Have You Herd? AABP PodCasts

AABP Executive Director Dr. Fred Gingrich is joined by Dr. Alexis Thompson, the lead author on the paper published in The Bovine Practitioner Vol. 56 No. 2 titled “Failed transfer of passive immunity is a component cause of pre-weaning disease in beef and dairy calves: A systematic review and meta-analysis”. The objective of the paper was to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis of literature regarding failed transfer of passive immunity (FTPI) and evaluate the strength of association between FTPI and disease in pre-weaned calves. Both dairy, beef and mixed breed cattle papers were included in the study to answer the question “how strongly is FTPI diagnosis associated with the risk of disease in pre-weaned calves”. Thompson walks listeners through the detailed materials and methods section of the paper to describe how the literature search was performed, inclusion and exclusion criteria for the papers evaluated, data extracted from each paper, and setting cut-points for morbidity and mortality. A total of 22 papers were included in the final data set. Thompson also defines the terms used in the paper including risk ratio, attributable fraction, preventable fraction and population attributable fraction. The outcomes evaluated included morbidity, mortality, diarrhea and pneumonia. The results of this meta-analysis indicated that FTPI is a component cause of pre-weaning disease in calves and there was variability between the strength of the association between the papers included in the study. There are many contributing causes of pre-weaning calf disease and the impact of FTPI on a calf or herd’s risk of developing disease depends on the presence of other component causes of disease. This is an important consideration when veterinarians are evaluating disease outbreaks in herds to ensure a holistic systems approach to identify all component causes of the outbreak.

Registration for the 56th AABP Annual Conference is now open. Gingrich mentions some of the opportunities at the conference to evaluate herd outbreaks and using data to solve problems in cattle practice. For more information and to register for the conference, visit this page. Preconference seminar information can be found at this link and the full schedule is available on this page.

Thompson, AC, & Smith, DR (2022). Failed transfer of passive immunity is a component cause of pre-weaning disease in beef and dairy calves: A systematic review and meta-analysis. The Bovine Practitioner, 56(2), 47–61. https://doi.org/10.21423/bovine-vol56no2p47-61