Herd Health

Reducing Antimicrobial Usage (AMU), A Practical Approach

Everyone on their operations probably has areas where they use either antibiotics unnecessarily, the wrong ones for the problems at hand, or perhaps situations where a lower class antibiotic will get the job done. I know I am changing in my advice as we finely tune where we use antibiotics. Ancillary treatments, such as NSAIDs, for pain or inflammation are being more commonly used and antimicrobials less. There are reductions that can be made throughout almost all cow-calf operations, whether they be purebred or commercial. I would suggest that any major changes be discussed with, or instituted by your veterinarian.

There may be in many instances a savings in antibiotic costs with no negative changes in outcome.

We can break most antibiotic usage in the cow calf/purebred sector into several clinical entities they are used in. Pneumonia, diarrhea, lameness issues, navel infection, and miscellaneous conditions round out antibiotic usage on our farms.

With pneumonia, rarely is it a problem in our cows. Conditions like degenerative lungs, emphysema, or lungworms may require other treatments.

Rarely do mature cows get the bacterial pneumonia that we call shipping fever, which requires antibiotics for treatment. Different treatments may involve dewormers, if there are lungworms, and this is usually a pasture condition. For degenerative lung conditions, sometimes anti-histamines, steroids, etc. may be used, but generally these are going to be temporary measures and cattle may be better to be shipped, if appropriate. Get the cattle over the crisis, the withdrawals recognized, and salvage value realized. This is why cattle that recover from viral pneumonias such as BRSV often have irreversible damaged lungs and don’t do as well from a growth perspective. In an ideal world, preventing pneumonic conditions with vaccines, two staged, fence line weaning, or as stress free as possible, helps prevent pneumonias.

Any stresses we can reduce at calving, such as crowding, keeping calves warm and dry, with creep areas, helps both pneumonia and diarrhea. Many producers are vaccinating for the specific pneumonias they get on young calves and using respiratory vaccines at an earlier age and employing intranasal vaccines to avoid colostral interference. Always better to prevent disease than treat it. Get samples taken and cultures done to determine both the type of pneumonia and which antibiotics are best suited to treat it. Using some science should be worth the investment to best get positive results on the next cases you treat. Again, take their temperature, as active recent infections should have a fever. If there is no fever, the calf is either not infected, or is very far gone, and as I have said, is going through a normal temperature on the way to comatose. I have seen very conscientious producers sometimes over treat. The temperature can be a good deciding factor, on whether to treat or not. Normal temperature is considered 38.5-39.5C and 39.540.0C is the grey area. Generally, a producer’s intuition is good when treating based on clinical signs, demeanor, alertness, etc., but let the temperature give you an objective measure to help your decision.

With scours cases, your veterinarian will often tell you most are caused by viruses, so antibiotics of any sort, be it pills, injectable, or oral liquid, really don’t do anything. Scours at 1-3 days of life could very well be caused by e-coli, a bacteria which responds to antibiotics. Scour vaccines have really helped to prevent this cause, as well as the viral causes of scours. A dietary, stress diarrhea, or diarrhea caused by protozoa, such as cryptosporidium, require electrolytes first and foremost. In the case of cryptosporidium, a specific treatment is necessary, not an antibiotic. Like the pneumonia with diarrhea, it is getting the proper cause, and the treatments most commonly will not require antibiotics unless it is caused by a septicemia or e-coli scours. It is more about prevention through scour vaccines and other management changes, or treatment with electrolytes, and way-less about antibiotics.

Lameness issues, as has been mentioned in numerous articles, the one lameness very responsive to antibiotics is footrot (in cows, calves and bulls) but only about 20% of lameness issues are footrots. Broken legs, tendon and ligament injuries, down to sprains, and strains require pain killers and other products, surgery or casting, in the case of a broken leg, but seldom antibiotics. Again, a more accurate diagnosis needs to be made. This includes cows or bulls, which more commonly may have a sole abscess, or a bad crack, needing foot trimming and proper foot care, or a stifle injury which may be permanent. Either way, proper individual care is the answer. True footrot should respond well to antibiotics. If it doesn’t respond, have the animal examined, as it is most likely something else, which may require other cures.

With navel infection, you must determine the acuteness of the case, to determine whether ..continued on page 50

Roy Lewis DVM

THANK YOU!

THJ GIVE-ER 13G

to everyone who was part of our sale in 2021 – from the on-farm visitors, to bidders and buyers. We truly appreciate all of you! Goodbrand Land & Cattle Company Eldon Roesler • Fred Schooler Dave Dubelowski • Leggett Farms Ltd. Jay Herder • Robert & Carol Cooper Kenny Sidener • Be-Rich Charolais Fawcett Cattle Co. • Bar Cee Ranches Brianna Madge • Fawcett Ranches Craig Brown • Hedley Farms Sounding Creek Grazing Assoc. Willerton Farms • KLC Cattle Co. Island Lake Grazing Assoc.

We would also like to thank the progressive producers who purchased Game Day semen this spring: Stan Skeels • Rocky & Debbie Payne Horseshoe E Charolais • K-Cow Ranch Johnson Charolais • Martens Charolais Desertland Cattle Company

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in March, 2022!

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antibiotics will help, or if drainage simply be established like an abscess. Many apparent navel infections were treated that were in fact umbilical hernias, or the infection is long gone and just the scarred navel stump remains. Metaphylactic antibiotics, for things like castration of older calves, have or are being replaced by painkillers in the majority of cases. For pinkeye, we may use approved eye ointments to decrease injectable antibiotic usage. Also, once there is a white scar and no eye drainage, they are over the pinkeye, so there is no need for further treatment.

All the above suggestions should definitely be clarified with your herd veterinarian. They will help with the actual diagnosis, and explain whether antimicrobials are necessary or not. Using good herd health recommendations, such as vaccinations to help prevent or reduce the scours and pneumonia incidence, should cut down antimicrobial usage. Then selecting the right drug for the right bug, when antimicrobials are necessary, will improve our success rate. Other treatments such as pain killers (NSAIDs) may be more appropriate in many cases.