Non-antibiotic approaches for disease prevention and control in beef and veal production: a scoping review

Abstract

Livestock producers are encouraged to reduce the use of antibiotics belonging to classes of medical importance to humans. We conducted a scoping review on non-antibiotic interventions in the form of products or management practices that could potentially reduce the need for antibiotics in beef and veal animals living under intensive production conditions. Our objectives were to systematically describe the research on this broad topic, identify specific topics that could feasibly support systematic reviews, and identify knowledge gaps. Multiple databases were searched. Two reviewers independently screened and charted the data. From the 13,598 articles screened, 722 relevant articles were charted. The number of relevant articles increased steadily from 1990. The Western European research was dominated by veal production studies whereas the North American research was dominated by beef production studies. The interventions and outcomes measured were diverse. The four most frequent interventions included non-antibiotic feed additives, vaccinations, breed type, and feed type. The four most frequent outcomes were indices of immunity, non-specific morbidity, respiratory disease, and mortality. There were seven topic areas evaluated in clinical trials that may share enough commonality to support systemic reviews. There was a dearth of studies in which interventions were compared to antibiotic comparison groups.

Editorial: Systematic reviews reveal a need for more, better data to inform antimicrobial stewardship practices in animal agriculture

“…Articles in this special issue include scoping reviews of systematic reviews in animal health (Vriezen et al, 2019a) and of non-antibiotic approaches to reduce the need for antibiotic treatments in beef and veal production (Wisener et al, 2019). The systematic reviews with meta-analyses or network meta-analyses include an assessment of the efficacy of vaccines and injectable antibiotics administered on arrival to control respiratory disease in feedlot cattle (O'Connor et al, 2019a(O'Connor et al, , 2019b; the efficacy of teat sealants, antibiotics at dry off, selective dry cow treatment to reduce the incidence of mastitis and intra-mammary infection in early lactation, and the efficacy of antibiotics to treat clinical mastitis in dairy cattle (Winder et al, 2019a(Winder et al, , 2019b(Winder et al, , 2019c(Winder et al, , 2019d; the comparative efficacy of litter type for preventing illness in broiler chickens (Sargeant et al, 2019a); the efficacy of antibiotics to prevent colibacillosis in broiler chickens (Sargeant et al, 2019b); and the efficacy of bacterial vaccines and of preventive antibiotics to prevent respiratory disease in swine (Sargeant et al, 2019c(Sargeant et al, , 2019d.…”