March 29, 2024

Using right antibiotic at right time vital for antibiotic stewardship

ARLINGTON, Va. — Dairymen use many tools to keep their animals healthy, including antibiotic stewardship.

“Antibiotic stewardship is the responsible use of antibiotics to control, prevent and treat disease,” said Jamie Jonker, vice president of sustainability and scientific affairs for the National Milk Producers Federation.

“Antibiotics are an important tool in the toolbox to assure the health and welfare of dairy cattle,” Jonker said during a webinar presentation about the Farmers Assuring Responsible Management program.

“Antibiotic stewardship is choosing to use an antibiotic at the right time for the right disease,” he said. “Antibiotic use has a lot of interest from our customers and consumers, so because of that there are a lot of activities that happen at the national and international level.”

In 2016, Jonker represented the U.S. dairy industry at a meeting focused on antimicrobial resistance held at the United Nations.

“At that meeting, the United Nations stated that antimicrobial resistance was a matter of concern globally,” he said. “Having the dairy industry be part of that and the recognition of the importance of dairy in the diet of all people and the importance of responsible use was well received at that meeting.”

The FARM program has four silos that include animal care, environment, antibiotics and workforce development.

“Antibiotic stewardship has its own silo, but it’s really just part of the overall animal care program,” Jonker said.

A written veterinary client patient relationship or VCPR is one of many practices that are part of the FARM program.

“The VCPR is signed by the owner and the veterinarian annually, and it represents the dairy farm owner is routinely working with a veterinarian to implement an animal health program,” Jonker said.

For the program, the dairy farm also must maintain permanent written or electronic records for the treatment of common diseases.

“When an antibiotic is used the farmer keeps records of what antibiotic is used, for what condition, on what day, what animal, how much and the withdrawal times,” Jonker said. “And these records are kept for a minimum of two years.”

Although 2020 was a challenging year due to the pandemic, Jonker said, facility evaluations were completed on 2,805 farms as part of the FARM animal care program. The evaluated farms averaged 880 cows.

“There are about 32,000 licensed dairy farms in the U.S. that average 290 cows, so we’re not sure if the data is representative of the larger dairy community,” Jonker said.

For the farms that were evaluated, 74% of them met all the requirements of permanent records, Jonker said. Another 11% of them had some records and 15% of the farms didn’t have records.

“We have a good story about farmers keeping records and we also have a small part of our dairy farm community where we need to work a bit harder to help them get the record keeping systems in place for the antibiotics they use so they can demonstrate their commitment of antibiotic stewardship,” he said.

The vast majority of dairy farms keep written records, Jonker said, and in some cases the records are then entered into electronic systems.

“There’s no one system that must be used by every dairy farmer,” he said. “It’s the system that works best for the individual dairy farmer.”

It is important for all dairy farmers to keep records because well-maintained records help minimize the opportunity to have a residue, Jonker noted.

“It is illegal to have a residue in milk or in an animal sold to slaughter,” he said.

Dairymen have access to a variety of resources provided by the FARM program, including a residue avoidance manual that includes best management practices.

“It also has tables that include all the antibiotics approved for use in dairy cattle from calves to heifers, lactating and dry cows,” Jonker said. “It also includes tables that list the test kits that can be used for testing for residues in milk or meat.”

All milk sold commercially from a dairy farm for processing in the United States is tested for antibiotics.

“Over the last 24 years, there’s been a reduction of about 90% in the incidence of residues being found in a milk truck,” Jonker said.

“When a residue is found in a milk truck, each farm that has milk on that truck has its individual sample tested and the farm that caused the residue it responsible for the value of the milk on the truck,” he said. “If they are a repeat violator they could temporarily or permanently lose their license to sell milk.”

This mechanism has worked very well to reduce what was a very low number in 1996, Jonker said.

“It has gone from one out of every 1,000 truckloads having a residue to one out of every 10,000 having a residue,” he said. “And when that residue is detected, that milk cannot be sold into the commercial supply.”

For more information about the FARM program, go to www.nationaldairyfarm.com.

Martha Blum

Martha Blum

Field Editor