Failure of Passive Transfer (FPT)

What contributes to Failure of Passive Transfer (FPT)?

Feeding colostrum with inadequate levels of IgG
Feeding insufficient volumes of colostrum

Feeding colostrum too late after birth
Bacteria contaminating colostrum at harvest, during storage or at feeding

Numerous factors influence the IgG content of colostrum, such as:

An insufficient quantity of colostrum
Inferior quality of colostrum, ie colostrum collected from cows after the first 24 hours post birth

Poor maternal instincts
Suckling drive of the newborn

Why can feeding enough high-quality colostrum be a challenge?

Time and staffing constraints during calving, kidding or lambing can mean that newborn animals don’t get enough colostrum in the first hours after birth.
Maternal colostrum quality (IgG, fat and protein concentrations and volumes) are often variable and poor.

In a 2015 study done in New Zealand, only 9.7% of 298 samples (collected from cows at multiple times during the calving season) had immunoglobulin concentrations above the recommended threshold of 22%*, and only 8.6% had acceptable (low) bacterial contamination levels³. The study was done on 107 farms in nine regions across NZ.

In the same study, FPT was diagnosed in one third of dairy calves.

* It is internationally accepted that if maternal colostrum measures 22%MS with a Brix refractometer, then the IgG content will be approximately 50g/L.

3. Denholm et al., 2017. Associations between management practices and colostrum quality on New Zealand dairy farms. New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 65, 5: 257-263.