Effect of Farm Management Practices on Morbidity and Antibiotic Usage on Calf Rearing Farms

Abstract

Antimicrobial resistance has been recognized as one of the top health threats to human society. Abundant use of antibiotics in both humans and animals has led to ever-increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria. In food production, decreasing morbidity in beef herds would be an effective way to reduce the use of antibiotics. The objective of this retrospective observational study was to determine overall morbidity on calf rearing farms and to identify associated risk factors. Data were collected by questionnaire, meat companies’ databases and the national cattle register for 28,228 calves transported to 87 calf rearing farms. All medications given to these calves were retrospectively followed for 180 days from calf arrival to the farm. In total, 34,532 parenteral antibiotic medications were administered to the 28,228 study calves (122.3%), and 17,180 calves (60.9%) were medicated with antibiotics at least once during the follow-up. Higher numbers of calves transported to the same farm and larger age variation in calves in the same arrival batch were both associated with increased morbidity. In contrast, higher arrival age of individual calves was associated with decreased morbidity. Our study identifies several factors to consider in decreasing morbidity and antibiotic usage on calf rearing farms.

Analysis of Gut Microbial Communities and Resistance Genes in Pigs and Chickens in Central China

“…The discovery and widespread use of antimicrobials in the development of human civilization has an indelible meaning [ 1 ]. The extensive clinical application of antibiotics has greatly reduced the morbidity and mortality of bacterial infectious diseases in humans and animals [ 2 ], but due to the irregular use of antimicrobials in China (the largest producer and consumer of antimicrobials), severe bacterial resistance has emerged. Even the prevalence of cross-resistance [ 3 ] and multidrug resistance [ 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 ] has increased.…”

Decoding calf patterns : Advancing automated health monitoring with algorithmic insights

“…at the source dairy farm (Renaud et al, 2018b), during transportation (Marcato et al, 2018), and at the fattening farm (Renaud et al, 2018a). Identified risk factors include: a young transport age (Marcato et al, 2022a;Marcato et al, 2022b), high numbers of calves (and the contacts among them) and large age variation of calves in the same arrival batch (Sandelin et al, 2022), mixing procedures, and a new housing environment (Marcato et al, 2018). Multiple approaches were proposed to reduce the risk factors that cause the sickness, e.g.…”

“…During the veal fattening period, one main problem is the high morbidity and mortality (Pardon et al, 2013), leading to high use of antimicrobials (Pardon et al, 2013) and high resistance to antimicrobials in bacteria within this sector (Yang et al, 2020). Factors likely to be responsible for this high morbidity and mortality include: an abnormal navel, dehydration, presence of a sunken flank, arriving in the summer (Renaud et al, 2018a), higher numbers of calves transported to the same farm (Sandelin et al, 2022), larger age variation in the same arrival batch (Sandelin et al, 2022). Factors responsible for high antimicrobial usage include: beef breed (higher use compared to dairy and crossbreeds), calves arrival in winter months (higher use compared with arrival in April and May), and veal company (Bokma et al, 2019).…”

“…This dairyveal chain presents potential concerns for calf welfare, including transportation of young animals, high risk of disease, and barren housing (Webb et al, 2023). One important concern for the farmers in this production system is the high morbidity (Sandelin et al, 2022) and high mortality rates (…”