Pulmonary lavage samples were collected from 90- to 130-day-old calves before and 6 days after aerosol inoculation with bovine herpesvirus-1 (BHV-1) or parainfluenza-3 (PI3) virus. Alveolar lining material was separated from lavage fluids by high-speed centrifugation and phospholipids were extracted from alveolar lining material and analyzed by high-performance liquid chromatography. Phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylethanolamine were 74.2 +/- 6.5% and 13.3 +/- 2.8%, respectively, of the total phospholipid content in the surfactant obtained from calves before virus inoculation. Other phospholipids were represented by substantially lower percentages. Infection with either of the 2 viruses caused a significant (P < 0.05) decrease in the percentage of phosphatidylcholine to 66.0 +/- 8.0% and 65.1 +/- 10.8% in the calves inoculated with BHV-1 and PI3 virus, respectively. A significant (P < 0.05) increase in the percentage of phosphatidylethanolamine to 18.1 +/- 2.2% and 17.8 +/- 4.5% developed in calves inoculated with BHV-1 and PI3 virus, respectively. Infection with BHV-1 also induced an increase (not significant) in the percentage of phosphatidylinositol from 5.5 +/- 2.8% to 7.8 +/- 2.2%. A similar, but not significant, increase in the percentage of phosphatidylinositol was also seen in the calves inoculated with PI3 virus. Less substantial changes in the percentage of other phospholipids were detected after virus infection.

Pathophysiologic effects of Ostertagia ostertagi infection and their prevention by strategic anthelmintic treatments were studied in 3 groups each of 6 steer calves. Group-1 calves were noninfected controls. Group-2 calves were inoculated with 100,000 third-stage larvae on the 1st and 28th days of the experiment and grazed on pasture initially free of contamination. Group-3 calves were on a similar regimen as those in group 2, but were also treated with ivermectin 9 days after each larval inoculation. Group-2 calves had increased plasma pepsinogen and gastrin values and decreased weight gains, and total serum protein and albumin concentrations from the 2nd week of infection onward. They were anemic at 10 to 12 weeks and had lower carcass and meat quality at slaughter. Strategic anthelmintic treatments were effective in preventing these effects and calves in groups 1 and 3 had similar performances. On the basis of our findings, high pepsinogen values were related to worm burdens, whereas high gastrin concentrations were related to gastric lesions.

During the fiscal year 1988, USDA-FSIS detected 3,095 antimicrobial violations in bob veal calves, using the calf antibiotic and sulfonamide test. Of the 3,095 carcass submissions involved, 945 were tested further to identify the causative agents. The results of tests on the available kidney, liver, and muscle specimens are reported. Kidney specimens yielded a specific agent most often (71.2%), with neomycin (42.6%) being cited most among agents found in kidneys. Neomycin was found less frequently in liver (4.5%) and muscle (0.2%). Among all tissues, unidentified microbial inhibitors were either the largest or second largest category found (kidney, 10.5%; liver, 27.1%; muscle, 7.8%), and no other agent exceeded 7.0% (streptomycin in kidney). The proportion of liver and muscle specimens that had unidentified microbial inhibitors is particularly important because the next most common classes were streptomycin in liver at 5.5% and sulfamethazine in muscle at 2%. The frequency of unidentified microbial inhibitors may justify the addition of tests to the FSIS battery for identification of agents. Not all tissues were tested for sulfonamides, hence these agents are likely to have been underreported. Less than 10% of the muscle specimens evaluated yielded an agent, suggesting most calf antibiotic and sulfonamide test-positive carcasses may have been safe with regard to residues in meat, although organs might have been adulterated. Specimens for verification were not selected completely randomly from the population of all calf antibiotic and sulfonamide test-positive animals and calves selected for testing were not chosen strictly by random sampling; therefore, extrapolation of the contents of this report to the bob veal calf industry must be done with caution.