by Academician Yevgeny VORONIN, Member of the Russian Agricultural Academy, Rector of the Moscow State Academy of Veterinary Medicine and Biotechnology (named after K. Skryabin) page 23 The ailments affecting the youngsters of most farm animals and inflicting appreciable economic harm on the state are chiefly caused by infections. The scale of this damage is second only to the losses of cattle produced by mastitis in cows. Participants in the International Congress on homed cattle held in Spain in 1988 came to the conclusion that diarrhea in calves is caused by the enteropathogenic colon bacillus, Salmonella, Proteus, Klebsiella, staphylococci, citrobacterium, pseudomonades (pseudomonas),certain varieties of fungi and also by rota- and coronaviruses. It has also been established that simultaneously engaged in the etiology of this disease are no less than 2 to 3 causative agents and even more. In order to identify any of these as causative agents the microbe count per gram of feces should be greater than 10 6 , and they should also possess adhesive and toxicogenic properties and be pathogenic for white mice. At the same time our studies over many years have revealed that some gradual changes take place in what we call the etiological microbial picture in cases of diarrhea in calves. The place of prominence today is held by microbes of the Proteus group followed by Klebsiella, staphylococci, pseudomonades and, finally the enteropathogenic colon bacillus and Salmonella. It is therefore not surprising that as often as not diagnostic veterinary labs conducting this kind of analysis do not confirm diarrhea in the affected cattle because they fail to detect in them sufficient volumes of colibacilli and Salmonella, while also traditionally ignoring the rest of the microflora. Now, what is the reason for this change in the causative agents? The reason for this situation is in the largely uncontrolled and massive use of antibiotics and vaccines which have "pushed back" ... Читать далее