POSITIVE PREDICTIVE VALUE OF CLINICAL DIAGNOSIS OF NEONATAL DIARRHEA IN CALVES

During field practice, veterinarians must estimate the etiological diagnosis upon a series of signs, anamnesic and epidemiological data on a calf with neonatal diarrhea. The objective of this study was to find out the positive predictive value of parasitological and bacteriological diagnoses performed by veterinary clinicians on calves with diarrhea. over an eight month period, there were collected feces samples from 92 calves with diarrhea. In total, 118 clinical diagnosis were registered, 68 bacterial, 46 parasitic and four viral. In the laboratory were registered 86 diagnosis, 63 bacterial (E. coli 60,2%, Salmonella spp.1,0%) and 23 parasitic (Eimeria spp.5,8%, Cryptosporidium spp.16,5%). Clinical diagnosis was significantly associated to laboratory findings upon bacterial presumption (P<0.05), but not in the case of parasites. The Concordance between clinical and laboratory bacterial diagnoses was moderate with kappa= 0,538 (0,358; 0,717). Received specific chemotherapeutic treatment 26 of 65 bacterial laboratory cases, while three out of six calves with confirmed coccidia infestation got sulfonamides. The concordance between clinical and laboratory diagnoses ranged from poor to moderate o calves with acute diarrhea. In this study no clinical signs allowed a precise prognosis of the etiological agent associated to calf neonatal diarrhea; for these reasons, diagnosis based exclusively upon clinical examination has margin of error.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Franco, Selma, Signorini, Marcelo, Tarabla, Héctor
Format:	Digital revista
Language:	spa
Published:	Instituto de Innovación Agropecuaria de Panamá 2015
Online Access:	http://www.revistacienciaagropecuaria.ac.pa/index.php/ciencia-agropecuaria/article/view/139
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