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Table 5 Evaluation criteria to assess whether antimicrobial treatment is justified or not in calves with diarrhea

From: Comparison of antimicrobial prescription patterns in calves in Switzerland before and after the launch of online guidelines for prudent antimicrobial use

Judgement

Criteria

AMUa is justified if at least one of the following criteria is fulfilledb:

Lethargy and/or inappetencec, fever (≥39.5 °C), scleral injection, signs of sepsis in hematologyd

Suspicion of Salmonellosis is given if at least two of the following criteria are fulfillede:

Fever (≥39.5 °C), hematochezia, signs of sepsis in hematologyd

  1. Based on the online guidelines for prudent antimicrobial use available on AntibioticScout.ch [34, 35]; aAMU, antimicrobial use; bAMU was defined as not justified if neither lethargy/inappetence nor fever were present; cAccording to the original guidelines, AMU is only justified in lethargic calves, which don’t improve after correction of the blood acidosis with bicarbonate infusions; dLeft shift with toxic neutrophils; eIn severe and acute cases, special guideline recommendations can be followed before results of bacteriological culture are available