Restrictions on the use of antibiotics in veterinary medicine in Europe have been in place since 2015 so farmers must find other ways to treat serious problems like bovine respiratory disease.
Antimicrobials classified as critically important in human medicine are almost unavailable for food producing animals.
They may be used only as a relapse treatment prescribed by a veterinarian after clinical examination and after an antimicrobials susceptibility test.
Mass administration of antimicrobials should be limited to exceptional situations and only after veterinarian examinations.
“Exceptional situations are not clearly defined,” said Sebastien Assié of the Nantes Atlantic College of Veterinary Medicine in France. He spoke at the recent University of Calgary beef health conference.
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Governments in Europe have established these measures. Producers and veterinarians have no say in the policies, he said.
So far this newest restriction on the use of critically important drugs is not a problem for the control of BRD in French beef cattle but it would be useful to be able to treat a group rather than individuals.
“In my opinion, restrictions on the use of mass medication is a critical issue for the control of BRD in beef cattle,” he said.
Before restrictions, probably 70 percent received treatments when they arrived at feedlots, he said.
The aim was to prevent sickness and death as well as improve the animals’ performance.
“One of the advantages of mass medication is you don’t need to accurately detect all cases of BRD.”
Non-critically important antimicrobials are prescribed most often for food-producing animals in Europe but BRD was considered a hot topic because of the restrictions.
“In bovine production, the proportion of critically important antimicrobials prescribed in (European Union) in 2014 was very, very high,” he said.
The EU is a major beef producer with feedlots in Italy and Spain where young bulls are confined for fattening from six to eight months of age and finished at around 16 to 20 months. Antibiotic use is restricted and no growth-hormone implants or beta agonists are allowed.
They live in open or closed barns and are sorted into eight to 20 bulls per pen. A very big operation would finish about 500 bulls per year.
Most are purebreds and receive 70 percent corn silage and 30 percent concentrate.
They are susceptible to respiratory disease because of risk factors like transportation and commingling with strange animals.
“The intensity of these risk factors like transportation are very low in our system when compared with your system. However, BRD in our system is the first health disorder,” he said.
One study showed before the restrictions on antimicrobials were imposed about 18 percent were treated for BRD. About 70 percent received treatment upon arrival.
Now animals must be regularly monitored for illnesses. One method is to take rectal temperatures and treat them when sickness appears.
“This solution is very time consuming,” Assié said.
“In field conditions, there is a lack of cheap and practical tools to monitor disease,” he said.
Now producers need to find ways to improve animal husbandry to stay ahead of diseases.
Under the new protocol, annual veterinary visits are mandatory to identify risk factors and assess the prevalence of disease in the herd. Working with the farmer, a plan can be developed on preventive measures and treatments.
Producers are encouraged to offer preconditioned calves that have been vaccinated at the cow-calf level.
Vaccination efficacy on arrival at the feedlot is questionable, he said.
It is likely that new antimicrobials would be restricted to human medicine so alternatives to antimicrobials are needed. As well, further research is needed.
“We use less antimicrobials but we do not know the economic consequences. In my opinion, we will observe an increase in morbidity whatever efforts are made to find alternatives,” Assié said.
There are no penalties in France for producers or veterinarians if antimicrobial consumption is too high. However, in Denmark the swine sector faces a system of penalties for producers and veterinarians for overuse.
More restrictions are coming and Assié suspects macrolides like Draxxin could be restricted so treatment plans for BRD could be more challenging.
