Research

Current Projects

Dairy Bull Calf Welfare

Most male dairy calves leave the home farm where they are born soon after birth. Very little research, however, has focused on the care and management of male dairy calves before they leave the home farm, but research from our team has shown these young calves travel long distances and arrive to growing facilities with various health issues. We’re teaming up with the University of Guelph to understand male dairy calf management on the home farm, and we will work with dairy farmers in the U.S. and Canada to promote best management of male calves after birth to improve their longterm health and welfare.

Antimicrobial Stewardship on Dairy Farms

We’re working in collaboration with the University of California Davis, and the overall goal of this project is to develop dairy producer and employee-oriented antimicrobial stewardship educational materials that reduce unnecessary antibiotic use without harming animal health or producer profitability.

Antimicrobial Stewardship on Veal Farms

High antimicrobial use is common in the veal industry. We’re creating an antimicrobial stewardship training program and working one-on-one with veal calf growers for this project to improve disease diagnosis, reduce unnecessary antibiotic use, and combat antimicrobial resistance on veal farms across the United States.

Mitigating Salmonella 

The emergent multi‐drug resistant Salmonella ser. Heidelberg causes severe illnesses in humans and calves, and its extensive drug resistance limits treatment options for veterinarians and physicians. The recent multistate outbreak investigation ultimately linked cases of Salmonella ser. Heidelberg to contact with male dairy calves. We’re partnering with the University of Wisconsin-Madison and the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory on this project to develop strategies to reduce the spread of Salmonella ser. Heidelberg within the male calf production chain. We will estimate the amount of Salmonella in the environment at livestock markets, and the sampling results from the markets will also tell us which strains of Salmonella are present. With the results of this project, we hope to decrease the spread of Salmonella throughout the food chain by making improvements at the livestock markets. By making these improvements, we hope to decrease the transmission of Salmonella in our food and by direct contact. Ultimately, this will improve the health of both humans and animals.

Organic Herd Health Management

Disease prevention is a critical component of organic dairying. However, our lab previously reported very few organic dairy farmers vaccinate their animals. For this project, we’re sitting down and talking to organic dairy farmers around Ohio to learn more about they manage herd health.

Guiding antibiotic therapy in dairy calves.

Abstract presented at ADSA

Lactoferrin