Association between gastrointestinal tract, claw disorders, on-farm mortality and feeding management in veal calves

Figures & data

Table 1. Descriptive statistics of rumen, abomasa, liver, and claw disorders detected in 26 batches of veal calves during a post-mortem inspection at slaughter.

	Mean	SD	Min	Max
Low rumen development, % rumens	11.9	13.4	0.00	60.0
Moderate rumen development, % rumens	42.6	17.2	6.67	73.3
Hyperkeratosis, % rumens	60.1	18.4	29.0	93.3
Plaques, % rumens	68.7	22.6	20.0	100
Redness of mucosa, % rumens	24.2	21.9	0.00	80.0
Abomasal lesions, % abomasa
On torus pylorus	86.1	11.3	50.0	100
At least 1 in the pyloric area	91.9	9.13	61.1	100
Small lesion	62.1	13.7	27.8	93.8
Medium lesion	72.9	14.9	40.0	93.3
Large lesion	80.5	12.0	53.3	100
Hepatic diseases, % livers	17.3	13.0	6.67	41.7
Sole haemorrhages, % claws	64.1	25.9	7.50	96.7

Table 2. Descriptive statistics of data about feeding management and mortality obtained by farmer interview, and about duration of the fattening cycle and carcass weight gathered from slaughter records of 26 batches of veal calves inspected.

	Mean	SD	Min	Max
Feeding management
Liquid milk-replacer diet
Quantity of milk-replacer, kg/calf/cycle	312	29.9	258	365
Skimmed milk powder, %	32.1	18.5	0.00	55.0
Solid feed diet
Quantity of solid feed, kg/calf/cycle	162	38.3	90.0	240
Corn grain, %	85.4	16.2	15.0	93.0
Time of solid feed distribution after milk-replacer, min	44.0	23.7	30.0	120
Mortality, % of calves	2.74	2.52	0.00	12.0
Fattening days^1	185	16.7	154	213
Carcass weight, kg	165	26.6	125	233

¹Variables not included in the subsequent cluster analysis.

Table 3. Correlations between specific disorders detected on rumen, abomasa, liver, and claws detected in 26 batches of veal calves during a post-mortem inspection at slaughter, and information gathered a-posteriori from farmers’ interview and slaughter records.

	quantity of MR, kg/calf	skimmed milk powder, % MR	quantity of SF, kg/calf	corn grain, % SF	time of SF distribution after MR, min	carcass weight, kg	fattening days	mortality, % calves
Rumens
Low-developed	−0.06	0.00	−0.37	−0.25	−0.04	−0.30	0.12	−0.01
	ns	ns	†	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Moderate-developed	0.00	0.06	−0.34	−0.18	0.06	−0.43	0.20	0.26
	ns	ns	†	ns	ns	*	ns	ns
Hyperkeratosis	−0.33	0.08	0.22	0.46	0.01	0.47	−0.30	−0.36
	†	ns	ns	*	ns	*	ns	†
Plaques	0.26	0.05	0.36	−0.23	0.29	0.10	0.22	0.14
	ns	ns	†	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Redness of mucosa	0.17	−0.03	0.65	0.17	0.23	0.18	0.16	−0.13
	ns	ns	***	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Abomasa
Lesion on torus pylorus	0.24	0.19	0.27	0.16	0.28	0.07	0.29	0.04
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Lesion in pyloric area	0.01	−0.50	0.03	−0.13	−0.20	−0.10	0.22	0.41
	ns	*	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	*
Small lesion	0.14	−0.25	0.17	−0.10	0.31	−0.12	0.21	0.27
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Medium lesion	0.31	−0.47	0.26	−0.02	0.01	−0.23	0.45	0.31
	ns	*	ns	ns	ns	ns	*	ns
Large lesion	0.06	−0.32	0.39	−0.11	0.11	0.06	0.06	−0.09
	ns	ns	*	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns
Livers
Hepatic disease	0.14	−0.32	−0.16	−0.37	−0.40	−0.10	0.10	0.24
	ns	ns	ns	†	*	ns	ns	ns
Claws
Sole haemorrhages	0.00	−0.10	0.10	0.00	−0.03	0.32	0.14	−0.15
	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns	ns

MR: liquid milk-replacer; SF: solid feed.

ns p > .10; † p < .10; *p < .05; ***p < .001.

Table 4. Clusters of veal calves’ batches based on post-mortem inspection data and information collected a-posteriori about calves’ mortality, feeding management, fattening cycle duration, and carcass weights.

	Cluster			Significance
	1	2	3
Batches, n	13	9	4
Feeding management
Quantity of MR^1, kg/calf/cycle	309.0 ± 6.0^b	294.1 ± 7.2^b	358.8 ± 11^a	***
Skimmed milk powder^2, % MR	30.2 ± 18	28.1 ± 20	47.5 ± 2.9	ns
Quantity of SF^1, kg/calf/cycle	139.1 ± 7.2^c	172.5 ± 9.1^b	218.8 ± 13^a	***
Corn grain^2, % SF	86.7 ± 5.7	80.0 ± 25	91.6 ± 0.5	ns
Time of SF distribution after MR^2, min	35.0 ± 8.7	53.3 ± 25	52.5 ± 45	ns
Mortality^2, % calves	3.66 ± 3.2	1.97 ± 0.8	1.44 ± 1.0	ns
Fattening days^1^,3	185.8 ± 4.7	180.0 ± 5.6	193.0 ± 8.4	ns
Carcass weight^1, kg	152.7 ± 4.8^b	162.7 ± 6.2^a	210.6 ± 8.7^a	***
Slaughter inspection data
Low development^2, % rumens	18.1 ± 16^a	4.40 ± 5.6^b	8.33 ± 10^ab	*
Moderate development^1, % rumens	50.4 ± 4.4^x	34.9 ± 5.3^y	34.6 ± 7.9^y	†
Hyperkeratosis^1, % rumens	48.6 ± 4.0^b	75.1 ± 4.8^a	63.8 ± 7.1^ab	**
Plaques^1, % rumens	73.7 ± 6.2	58.6 ± 7.4	75.0 ± 11	ns
Redness of mucosa^1, % rumens	11.7 ± 5.2^b	37.0 ± 6.2^a	36.0 ± 9.3^a	**
Lesion on torus pylorus^2, % abomasa	87.4 ± 10	81.8 ± 14	91.5 ± 6.7	ns
Lesion in pyloric area^2, % abomasa	90.6 ± 12	94.0 ± 5.5	91.8 ± 2.8	ns
Small lesion^1, % abomasa	57.0 ± 3.5^y	70.3 ± 4.2^x	59.9 ± 6.4^xy	†
Medium lesion^1, % abomasa	70.0 ± 4.2	75.6 ± 5.1	76.3 ± 7.6	ns
large lesion^1, % abomasa	75.3 ± 3.1^y	86.7 ± 3.7^x	83.4 ± 5.6^xy	†
Hepatic diseases^2, % livers	22.1 ± 14	9.61 ± 8.2	20.0 ± 11	ns
Sole haemorrhages^1, % claws	49.0 ± 5.9^b	82.1 ± 7.2^a	72.5 ± 11^a	**

MR: milk-replacer; SF: solid feed.

^a,bValues within a row with different superscripts differ (p < .05).

^x,yValues within a row with different superscripts differ (p < .10).

¹ One-way ANOVA (normally distributed data), data are reported as LSmeans ± SE.

² Kruskall Wallis test (non-parametric data), data are reported as means ± SD.

³ Variables not included in the cluster analysis.

ns p > .10; † p < .10; *p < .05; **p < .01; ***p < .001.

Figure 1. Canonical coefficients between original variables and the two main canonical variables (a) and loadings of the 26 veal calves’ batches grouped by the cluster analysis according to the two canonical variables F2 and F1 (b).

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