Abstract
Antimicrobial use (AMU) in livestock species and the associated antimicrobial resistance are a global concern, thus strategies for their reduction and a more judicious use are needed. Previous research has revealed a link between improved animal welfare, biosecurity and AMU reduction in pig and dairy sectors, however, little is known about the beef sector. This study aimed to investigate the impact of welfare standards and biosecurity on AMU in beef cattle. Data on performance traits and AMU were collected over a 3.5 year time from 27 specialised beef farms and a treatment incidence was calculated using the defined daily dose for animals. An on-farm assessment was carried out by assigning a score from 0 (very poor) to 100% (very good) to 3 sections: welfare, biosecurity and emergency management. The highest average score was obtained for the welfare section (76%) followed by emergency management (39%) and biosecurity (24%). This suggests that major focus on strategies for the implementation of biosecurity measures and emergency management is needed, due to the low scores reported. A statistically significant lower AMU was observed with improved level of welfare. These results may be helpful for farm benchmarking and highlight the importance of improved animal welfare for an efficient antimicrobial stewardship.
Highlights
Antimicrobial use (AMU) in livestock species and the associated antimicrobial resistance are a global concern, strategies for their reduction and a more judicious use are needed
Performance traits and length of the fattening cycle were significantly different between categories of welfare, biosecurity and emergency management (P < 0.05) and between the 3 areas of total welfare (P < 0.05) except for the initial body weight between categories of biosecurity and average daily gain (ADG) between categories of Area B (P > 0.05; Table 2)
Similar patterns were observed for the final body weight between categories of total welfare and emergency management, but not for biosecurity where the lowest final body weight was observed for the category low (634.9 vs. 656.8 kg for low and medium, respectively)
Summary
Antimicrobial use (AMU) in livestock species and the associated antimicrobial resistance are a global concern, strategies for their reduction and a more judicious use are needed. Stokstad et al.[10] largely discussed about the importance of implementing biosecurity measures to prevent and reduce respiratory diseases in cattle Both biosecurity and welfare standards are recognized as basic principles of an efficient livestock m anagement[8,11,12]. Another important aspect of a general farm management is the use of antimicrobials (AMU), since they are useful tools in controlling infectious diseases, especially in intensive farming systems where the spread of pathogens is more likely to o ccur[13,14,15]. Accordance with other s tudies[28,29], the role that distinctive farm-factors like welfare and biosecurity procedures or the farmer-veterinarian r elationship[30] may play on the overall AMU
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