120
GASTROENTERITIS IN YOUNG CALVES [Vol. XXVIII, Part III,
At the Government Milk Colony, Aarey, which provided the bulk of the material
for this investigation, the cases examined were from Calf Rearing Farm and from
widely separated component units of the colony. Female calves fit for rearing
were selected from the units to be raised at the Calf Rearing Farm. At the Rearing
Farm calves were housed in pens constructed on modern lines and sufficient accommo-
dation was available for calves in various age groups to be housed separately. For
the first few weeks the calves were fed on reconstituted milk supplemented with
vitamins A and D in the form of shark-liver oil and the change to concentrates and
roughages was made gradually. The general hygiene and management conditions
were considered satisfactory. In the units, the stock belong to private owners.
There are 26 units in all. Each unit houses 475-500 lactating buffaloes with their
young stock. The standard of calf husbandry in the units varied from owner to
owner and was, on the whole, not very satisfactory. Of the cases received from
these units usually no ante-mortem history was available.
At the Government Dairy Farm, Chakganjaria, Lucknow, the dairy stock
consists of both cows and buffaloes. In January 1954, when the farm was first
visited, it was observed that from the age of three days onward up to about six
months, calves were kept in a large open compound with hardly any shelter to
protect them from the rains and winds. Later, at our suggestion, the younger
calves were separated from the older ones and when the Farm was visited next in
October 1954, the young calves were being kept separately in small sheltered paddocks
along with milking sheds. The calves at this farm are allowed to suckle their dams
up to the age of two months when they get on to the concentrate diet.
The Institute Experimental Dairy Herd at Mukteswar consists of a mixed stock
of Holstein-Fresian-Aryshire-native cross, Hill and Afghan breeds of cattle. The
calves are weaned at birth and kept together with other calves up to three months
of age in calf pens made by partitioning the milking byre. Colostrum and milk
•feeding is done through pail. General hygiene and management conditions are
satisfactory.
Technique
Cases, which showed evidence of gastroenteritis at necropsy, were selected for
bacteriological examination. Cultures were attempted from abomasum and one
or two affected spots in the intestines, as well as from heart blood, spleen and
mesenteric lymph nodes as a regular routine, while only in some cases from liver
and bile or from lesions in other organs or tissues as also the umbilical vein when it
appeared involved. The material was collected after searing the surface of the
organ. Heart blood and bile were withdrawn by means of a pasteur pipette and
the jet end sealed over flame. Pieces of organs to be collected were cut out and
transferred into sterile test tubes.
The heart blood and material from the organs were sown on the surface of
blood agar and MacConkey agar plates and also in a nutrient broth tube. If there
was no growth on a set of plates and there was growth in the nutrient broth, the
broth culture was streaked on plates for getting the organism in pure culture. The
plates were incubated at 37°C for 24 to 48 hours and discrete, well separated colonies