Evaluating case definitions of respiratory disease in calves: A scoping review protocol

Abstract

Bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is a complex challenge for cattle worldwide and major contributor to antimicrobial use in young calves. Individual case definitions are often poorly defined, despite the variety of scoring and diagnostic systems that have been developed. A scoping review of the case definitions used in the literature surrounding diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of BRD in calves would aid in the development of practical and reliable case definitions for BRD. This protocol will describe the steps taken to evaluate what case definitions are used in research articles to refer to BRD in young calves. The review will summarize descriptive and analytic studies examining respiratory disease in young calves, including describing the population of animals studied, primary objectives of BRD literature (e.g., prevalence, risk factors, intervention, diagnostic validation), and diagnostic methods used. Primary research articles will be eligible for inclusion, with the exception of case reports and case series. The study population will be restricted to calves of any breed or sex from birth to 6 months of age in the dairy, veal, or dairy-beef industries. The selection and inclusion process will be reported using a Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) flowchart and descriptive summaries will be displayed in tables and figures. The scoping review will be reported following the PRISMA-extension for Scoping Reviews (PRISMA-ScR) (Tricco et al., 2018).