Nutritional and microbiological quality of bovine colostrum samples in Brazil

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to evaluate the nutritional and microbiological composition of colostrum samples collected from colostrum banks or newly calved cows on dairy farms. For this purpose, 66 colostrum samples from dairy cows were directly collected during the milking of newly calved cows or from colostrum storage bank. Samples were collected from commercial properties in the states of Minas Gerais, São Paulo, and Paraná - Brazil, which were classified according to the total daily milk yield (MY). Even though average immunoglobulin concentrations were either adequate (79.7 and 51.7 mg/mL, for farms with MY>701 L/d and <200 L/d, respectively) or marginal (48.1 mg/mL for MY between 201-700 L/d), for only 48.4% of the colostrum samples, immunoglobulin concentrations were greater than 50 mg/mL. A variety of factors such as production system, animal breed, and time of sample collection can also affect the variables studied. In addition to emphasizing nutrition, good hygiene practices during the colostrum collection and storage process also deserve attention, since 24% of colostrum samples were below the microbial quality parameters. When nutritional and microbiological quality were simultaneously analyzed, only 22.6% of colostrum samples met the recommendations. Therefore, most of the calves in this region of Brazil are likely to present failure of passive immunity transfer and are exposed to pathogens when fed maternal colostrum.