2004 IRISH SCIENTIST YEAR BOOK

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Kilcormac Vocational School, Co. Offaly
David Mitchell & Fergal Leonard
Calf nutritional scour – could natural yoghurt save our lives?

David Mitchell & Fergal Leonard at the Exhibition

Calf nutritional scour (diarrhoea) costs farmers millions of euro each year through calf mortality, ill thrift and veterinary costs. As we encountered this problem on our own farms, we decided to look at different ways to try and prevent nutritional scour occurring and look at alternatives to conventional medicines as treatments, since these were proving very expensive.

An article in the Farming Independent prompted us to look at natural yoghurt as an alternative treatment for calf scour.

The following experiments were carried out:

  1.  A comparison was made between natural live yoghurt and antibiotics as a scour treatment. We took a group of ten calves which had scour, and treated them twice daily with a commercially available antibiotic. It cured them after about 5-6 days of dosing. We then took another group of ten calves and treated these with natural yoghurt by mixing it with milk from milking cows and feeding them through special teat feeders. The natural yoghurt cured the infected calves within 3-4 days of the first treatment. Our conclusion is that calf scour can be as effectively treated with natural live yoghurt, as with antibiotics.

  2.  Another group of ten calves were fed milk only and observed daily for signs of scour. When these calves began scouring, they were isolated, and five were fed natural live yoghurt in the milk as a treatment, while the other five calves did not receive yoghurt. All the calves fed yoghurt showed signs of recovery after the second day of treatment with full recovery after four days of yoghurt treatment. The calves which did not receive the yoghurt continued to scour. Our conclusion from this experiment is that natural yoghurt is a viable treatment for calf scour.

  3.  Four out of a group of eight calves, which had previously had scour and had recovered, were fed natural yoghurt in the milk to investigate its effectiveness in preventing the return of calf scour. They were observed daily for signs of scour. The calves that received yoghurt did not show any signs of scour during the experimental period.

Our conclusion from this experiment is that natural yoghurt is a very effective method of preventing calf scour. This method of scour prevention would be environmentally friendly and would result in safer food for the consumer.

David Mitchell & Fergal Leonard won first prize in the Junior Group Section in the Biological and Ecological Sciences Category at the EsatBT Young Scientist & Technology Exhibition in January 2004. They also won a Special Award sponsored by Comhar – The National Sustainable Development Partnership. Their teacher was Dr. Lisa Dunne.


This article was sponsored by Comhar The National Sustainable Development Partnership