What is it about?
The general public is increasingly concerned about using antibiotics to treat animals in food production systems. It is vital that sick animals should be treated and that veterinarians should have treatment options available to prevent unnecessary suffering. Nevertheless, farmers and veterinarians are working together to reduce antibiotic use. In Austria, antibiotics can only be obtained from veterinarians and any antimicrobials dispensed must be reported to the authorities. This study aimed to compare antibiotic use on dairy farms, using a standardised unit, the Defined Course Dose. The most common bacterial infection in dairy cows is mastitis (udder infection). For decades, the use of antibiotic treatments to prevent or cure mastitis during the dry period (approximately 4–8 weeks when cows are not milked) has been routine. However, the need to reduce antibiotic use has seen farmers and veterinarians consider a more selective use of these drugs, only using them in cows proven to have bacterial infections, rather than treating all cows in a “blanket” approach. This study determined that farmers choosing a selective approach used fewer antibiotics overall than those using blanket treatment. No difference was found between conventional and organic dairy farms with respect to antibiotic use at drying off.
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Why is it important?
Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing global problem. Medics, veterinarians and the general public all need to use antibiotics responsibly (as little as necessary) to ensure that bacterial infections remain treatable. Organic farms in Europe are permitted to use antibiotics for welfare reasons. Using a more selective decision-making process led to less overall antibiotic use on the study farms.
Perspectives
It is important that the general public realises that veterinarians and farmers are working hard to reduce their use of antibiotics on farms. The routine use of antibiotics in feed for growth promotion has been banned in the European Union since 2005 and access to veterinary antibiotics is strictly controlled in most EU countries. Statutory withdrawal periods (a set period of time when the milk produced by the cow cannot be used for human consumption) ensure that antimicrobial residues do not enter the food chain.
Dr Clair L Firth
University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Comparison of Defined Course Doses (DCDvet) for Blanket and Selective Antimicrobial Dry Cow Therapy on Conventional and Organic Farms, Animals, September 2019, MDPI AG,
DOI: 10.3390/ani9100707.
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