Calf Talk

October, 2005

Volume 11, No. 10

CRYPTO? OR COCCIDIOSIS?

By: Russ Schnepper, D.V.M.

Many calf raisers confuse cryptosporidiosis and coccidiosis. It is important to know the difference, as the control and treatment of the two are different. Both diseases may or may not produce a diarrhea, with or without blood. There are definite time frames that pretty well define the two diseases. Crypto causes a problem the first 21 days of a calf’s life, Coccidiosis can not appear before 21 days, as that is the incubation period.

Cryptosporidiosis is a disease caused by a very tiny organism, the size of a red blood cell. The calf swallows the crypto, it is in cow manure. Manure on the cow’s teats or from the environment provide the source. The crypto organism burrows into the wall of the calf’s gut and incubates for approximately 48 hours. Then it erupts into the lumen of the gut. Half of the organisms go out the back end of the calf to contaminate its environment, while the other half dive into the lining of the gut and start incubating again. If the calf eats one crypto organism on day one, it becomes one million by day eight. Crypto is auto infective, once it is in the calf’s body, it does not have to pass out of the calf in order to reinfect it. Our safe recommended treatment for crypto is deccox. It is impossible to overdose it as it is not absorbed from the gut. Deccox is a contact killer. The deccox must touch the crypto organism to kill it and can not touch the crypto while it is in the lining of the gut. Deccox must be present in the lumen of the gut at the time the calf eats the crypto organism and/or when the newly incubated organism emerges from the wall of the gut, in order to kill the crypto.

There are several other treatments for crypto. They are either unsafe, or expensive and do not work any better than the deccox. A liquid Bovatec, as in Calf Pro, is used for crypto. But the effective dose for crypto is the LD-50 dose, which means it kills half the calves at this dosage. All I have seen with this product is dead calves, so I do not recommend it. Halocur is being marketed in Canada and Europe for crypto. It reduces the shedding of the crypto organism by 40 to 60% and costs as much as $10/calf/day to treat. Corid (amprolium) is used for coccidiosis, but there are studies that show amprolium to be ineffective against crypto. MY ONLY SAFE RECOMMENDED TREATMENT FOR CRYPTOSPORIDIOSIS IS DECCOX at five times the coccidia dose!

Coccidiosis is caused by a little parasite that is five times as large as a crypto organism. The usual scenario is, the calf eats the coccidia organism, which is found in manure. The organism burrows into the wall of the gut and incubates, emerging back into the lumen of the gut and again back into the wall of the gut a couple times in the cycle before it causes a disease problem at 21 days. As the coccidia emerges form the wall of the gut, it causes hemorrhages, which accounts for the bright blood in the calf’s manure. The coccidia passes out the calf and must remain on the ground for at least three days, going thru development stages, before it is infective again when eaten. Treatment is usually corid or a sulfa. Prevention is the proper feeding of deccox, bovatec, or rumensin. All are effective if fed at the proper level. Usually the concentrate containing the coccidostat is underfed and an improper dose results in a sick calf.

Contact information for ordering information and questions about our products:

Schnepper International, Inc.

3210 County B, Platteville, WI 53818

608-348-6141, Fax: 608-348-6146