Veterinary advice: Disinfecting calf pens now will reduce cryptosporidium infection

Every year I treat many calves for neonatal diarrhoea, and one causative agent that I have seen become more and more prevalent over the last 15 years is cryptosporidium.

It is a tough bug to get under control, and while it will cause very serious disease on its own, it will happily team up with rotavirus or coronavirus to cause devastating diarrhoea.

Cryptosporidium parvum is a protozoan parasite that causes diarrhoea in young calves generally between one and three week.