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| - Cow calf producers are aware that natural
colostrum must be ingested by baby calves within 6 hours of birth to acquire
satisfactory passive immunity. However some calves do not have ample
opportunity to receive colostrum. Perhaps the mother is a thin two-year-old
that does not give enough milk or the baby calf was stressed by a long
delivery process and is too sluggish to get up and nurse in time to get
adequate colostrum. These calves need to be hand fed stored colostrum
in order to have the best opportunity to survive scours infections and/or
respiratory diseases. Therefore stored frozen colostrum from a dairy
or from other beef cows that lost calves at calving should be on hand to
meet these needs.
Colostrum can be refrigerated for only about 1 week before quality (immunoglobulin
or antibody concentration) declines. If you store colostrum, unfrozen
be sure that the refrigerator is cold (33-35°F, 1-2°C) to reduce
the onset of bacterial growth. If the colostrum begins to show signs
of souring, the quality of the colostrum is reduced. The immunglobulin
(very large protein) molecules in colostrum that bring passive immunity
to the calf will be broken down by the bacteria, reducing the amount of
immunity that the colostrum can provide. Thus, it is important that
colostrum be stored in the refrigerator for only a week or less.
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