A calf that is well mothered and consumes 1 to 2 quarts of colostrum in the first few hours after birth absorbs a higher level of antibodies. This calf is far less susceptible to scours and other calfhood diseases. Viral Scours Rotavirus Scours. A reo-like virus can cause scours in calves within 24 hours of birth. However, when the infection- is first introduced into the herd, it can affect calves up to 30 days of age or older.
Infected calves are severely depressed.
There may be a drooling of saliva and profuse watery diarrhea. The feces will vary in color from yellow to green. Calves lose their appetite and the death rate may be as high as 50 percent, depending on the secondary bacteria present. Diagnosis depends on an accurate history, clinical signs, and proper specimen collection and submission to a laboratory. The reo-like virus infection alone causes no diagnostic gross lesions in the intestine, but there is an increased volume of fluid in both the small and large intestine.