Know all about storing and using colostrum

New research shows that care is needed with supplementary colostrum to avoid 'unintended consequences'

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With lambing season fast approaching, recent on-farm research is highlighting the serious ‘unintended consequences’ of poor colostrum storage and equipment hygiene. The research was carried out during lambing on a typical commercial flock by the University of Glasgow and Monitor Farm Scotland programme. It discovered that 80% of the farm’s supplementary colostrum tested failed total bacterial count tests.

High bacterial counts cause a number of serious issues, explains Ali Haggerty, a vet with The Stewartry Veterinary Centre in Castle Douglas, Dumfriesshire. “Remember lambs have no antibodies of their own at birth and are reliant on the transfer of antibodies from maternal colostrum across the gut to gain immunity to disease in the first few weeks of life. Bacteria can inhibit the transfer of passive immunity to the lamb, can break up the antibodies in colostrum rendering them ineffective, and block the uptake of antibodies across the lamb’s gut. They can also damage the gut itself meaning antibodies can no longer cross, and, of course, can cause disease in their own right.”

When looking at coliforms, the bugs that can be particularly responsible for the deleterious effects on colostrum and are associated with faecal contamination, the research found 60% of samples on farm exceeded acceptable thresholds.

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