Over 200 service providers recently attended Animal Health Ireland’s CellCheck conference in Kilkenny, focused on providing the latest science and research on dry cow therapy, and case studies from farmers who have very successfully moved away from blanket dry cow therapy.
Although traditionally recognised as best practice in mastitis control, as we learn more about antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance the need for the preventative practice of blanket dry cow therapy where all cows are treated with antibiotics at dry off, has been reviewed.
The Veterinary Medicine Regulation (EU 2019/6) requires farmers and vets to move towards ‘selective dry cow strategies’, which involve a more targeted use of antibiotic treatments.
This means identifying specific cows that require an antibiotic, rather than prescribing and administering to the whole herd.
A poll among conference attendees showed that while 82% of them felt that their clients and/or suppliers were reasonably aware of new regulations, there was still some confusion about what it means for them.
OneHealth, AMR and dry cow therapy
We need to use antibiotics as ‘little as possible and as much as necessary’. Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) occurs when an antimicrobial that was previously effective to treat a bacterial infection or disease is no longer effective.
This is different from an antibiotic residue. AMR is a natural phenomenon, but the misuse and overuse of antibiotics in human and animal health accelerates the rate at which it develops and spreads.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has named AMR as one of our top 10 global crises of today.
AMR is referred to as a One Health issue, as it can transfer directly between bacteria in humans and animals and through the environment.
Considerable changes have been made to reduce the use of antibiotics in agriculture, such as in the use of antibiotics of last resort for treatment of human infection, and the sale of dry cow tubes as farms move to selective drying off strategies.
Ensuring prudent use of antibiotics in animals includes focussing on other preventive measures.
Attention to hygiene, biosecurity and optimal housing are some measures that will help minimise the occurrence of disease in animals, reducing the need for antibiotic treatments.
Don’t go it alone! Free consults are available.
A selective drying off strategy is not without risk and is not something to embark on without seeking professional support.
Free veterinary consults are available to all dairy farmers as part of the Targeted Advisory Service on Animal Health (TASAH) funded through the Rural Development Plan 2014-2022.
These consults focus on improving milk quality during lactation, reducing bulk tank SCC and for farms that are ready, to develop farm-specific selective dry cow strategies where appropriate.
Applications are currently open for the TASAH Dry Cow and Cell Count Solutions Consults and details are available on the Animal Health Ireland website:
www.animalhealthireland.ie.
A milk recording within 30 days of drying off is vital to provide your vet with necessary individual cow information for prescribing, along with clinical mastitis history and milk sampling.
Removing infected cows from the herd, that have been identified with milk recording and that are unlikely to be cured with antibiotic treatment, would reduce the infection pressure for the other cows, and the need for recurrent treatments.
Which cows should be treated with antibiotic at drying off?
There was plenty of robust discussion at the conference about the “right” SCC threshold to use, when identifying which cows need antibiotic tubes.
Internationally, no two countries use the same threshold; the CellCheck Farm Guidelines suggest cows that never had an SCC over 100,000 cells/mL and no clinical mastitis can be dried off with teat seal alone, while recent Teagasc research suggests an SCC of 67,000 cells/mL as the preferred cut-off.
The key point is that the lower the threshold, the more uninfected animals we ‘treat’ unnecessarily and the more antibiotic we use.
With a higher threshold, there is a possibility that we will miss (i.e. not treat) some cows with infection but use less antibiotics overall.
What is even more important, is that we don’t introduce bacteria into the quarter at drying off, or over the dry period.
Teagasc research compared a ‘better’ farm drying-off procedure with an enhanced, best-practice procedure to achieve ‘best’ hygiene at drying off.
The ‘best’ procedure included additional preparation and disinfection steps, but highlighted the dramatic impact these steps can have on early lactation SCC, not just when using teat sealant alone but also when antibiotic was used.
The importance of good hygiene during the dry period should not be forgotten. Cows are susceptible to new infections particularly in the early dry period before their teats have sealed and in the two weeks prior to calving.
Dry cows need to be monitored closely at all times to ensure prompt identification and treatment of sick cows.
