The Relationship between Animal Welfare and Antimicrobial Use in Italian Dairy Farms.

Francesca Mazza,Gianluca Antonio Romeo,Gian Filippo Clemente,Antonio Marco Maisano,Federica Guadagno,Loredana Candela,Valentina Lorenzi,Claudia Romeo,Giovanni Loris Alborali,Federico Scali,Clara Tolini,Matteo Tonni,Giovanni Santucci,Luigi Bertocchi,Nicoletta Formenti,Giordano Ventura,Francesca Fusi

doi:10.3390/ani11092575

Abstract

Simple SummaryThe purpose of this work was to investigate the relationship between animal welfare (AW) and antimicrobial use (AMU) in dairy farms due to limited knowledge in this sector. AW was assessed using a survey in 79 Italian farms housing over 15,000 cows. The average AW level was good. Nevertheless, a wide difference among farms emerged, both in terms of AW and AMU, which underlined the importance of creating a monitoring system to identify problem farms as well as virtuous farms (as positive examples). The use of antimicrobials deemed critical for human medicine by the European Medicines Agency was frequent, particularly in farms with good management. This could be due to a tendency to choose those perceived as the best antimicrobials. Nevertheless, it is possible to reduce the use of critical antimicrobials without affecting animal health and production. Farms with better management used more intramammary products for dry cows; thus, reducing AMU may require selective dry cow therapy in several herds. Two of the farms involved in the study did not use any antimicrobials, but their AW was poor, suggesting a management review including a possible reintroduction of AMU. Our study highlights the importance of implementing a tailored antimicrobials stewardship.Information regarding the relationship between animal welfare (AW) and antimicrobial use (AMU) in dairy cows is limited. The current study aimed to investigate this relationship on Italian farms and to identify potential targets of AMU reduction. The study was performed at 79 Italian dairy farms housing over 15,000 cows during 2019. AW was scored with an on-farm protocol assessing farm management and staff training, housing systems, and animal-based measures. AMU was estimated using a defined daily dose per kg of animal biomass (DDDAit/biomass) for Italy. The median AW score was 73% (range: 56.6–86.8%). The median AMU was 4.8 DDDAit/biomass (range: 0–11.8). No relationship between the total AMU and AW was found. Management and staff training were positively associated with the use of the European Medicines Agency’s category B antimicrobials, which are critical for human medicine, and with intramammary products for dry cow therapy. In those farms, antimicrobial stewardship should aim to reduce the category B antimicrobials and selective dry cow therapy. Our results underline the importance of implementing both an integrated monitoring system (AW, AMU, etc.) and antimicrobial stewardship tailored to the specific needs of each dairy farm.

Highlights

Animal welfare (AW) has multifaceted dimensions; animal welfare (AW) should encompass an integrated approach that includes animal health, food security, and public health [1].The relation between AW and animal health in dairy production is well-known
In a first model (i), we included as an explanatory variable the total AW score, whereas in a second model (ii), we considered separately all of the AW areas
No direct relationship emerged between overall antimicrobial use (AMU) and AW, a group of farms that excelled in both was found, which may serve as a positive example for other farmers

Summary

Introduction

Animal welfare (AW) has multifaceted dimensions; AW should encompass an integrated approach that includes animal health, food security, and public health [1].The relation between AW and animal health in dairy production is well-known. Poor housing conditions may increase the incidence of skin lesions in cows [3]. Dairy cow welfare was defined as the second worst AW problem in Europe just after the welfare of sows, calves, and laying hens [5]. Contrary to the latter animal categories, there is no specific European directive for dairy cow welfare, but several voluntary AW assessment protocols for dairy farms have been proposed either using human assessors [6,7,8] or automated systems [9,10,11]. It has been reported that improvements in AW and animal health can help the rationalization of AMU [13,14,15]

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