UK report: Antimicrobial reduction had no impact on milk production
Antimicrobial use on UK dairy farms has reduced by almost a fifth in the past five years but this has had no impact on either herd health or milk production, according to a new report published today (Monday, January 27)
The report, produced by Kingshay, part of the VetPartners group, is based on data from 879 dairy herds across the UK using their antimicrobial monitoring service for the period ending March 2024.
One of the authors of the report, Westpoint Farm Vets’ senior clinical director, Dr. Tim Potter, said today that latest data highlights that the efforts of the dairy sector to reduce antimicrobial use "are paying dividends".
Dr. Potter said: “The aim isn’t for no antimicrobials to be used in farmed animals, but instead for their use to be reduced as much as possible whilst still maintaining their availability and effectiveness to treat disease.
“We are pleased to report that the latest data suggests that neither herd health or milk production have been impacted by this reduction in use, in fact, as total antimicrobial use has reduced, mastitis rates and bulk somatic cell counts have also reduced, and there hasn’t been a rise in culling for mastitis or an increase in the rate of cows leaving the herd.”
According to the report, which also includes health data from Kingshay’s health manager service this year for the first time, found that mastitis rates reduced to 26 cases per 100 cows – down from 29 in 2023 and 42 in 2020.
It shows that individual herd antimicrobial use ranged from 0.02 to 90.45 mg/Population Correction Unit (PCU).
However, average total antimicrobial usage for the year was 12.7 mg/kg PCU – down from 13.7 mg/PCU in 2023 and 15.7 mg/PCU in 2020.
Antibiotic dry cow tube usage declined by 5.8% in the year to 0.425 defined course dose (DCDVet) while lactating cow tube usage reduced by 10.2% to 0.386 DCDVet.
“The treatment of mastitis is one of the key reasons for using antimicrobials in the dairy sector, but the fall in the number of cases and associated decrease in tube usage demonstrates the dairy sector’s commitment to addressing the challenge of this disease,” Dr. Potter added.
Emma Puddy, farm services specialist at Kingshay, who also co-authored the report said:
“The dairy industry has made huge strides in its efforts to reduce the use of highest priority, critically important antimicrobials and the number of herds using any at all has dropped by nearly three-quarters since 2020 to 3.9%".
However despite this progress, Puddy believes there is room for continued improvement – especially in the 25% of herds using the most antimicrobials.
“The impact of these higher users is significant as they account for 50% of total group usage,” she added.
Puddy said dairy producers – especially those in that top quartile – must continue to work with their vets and advisers to reduce their reliance on antimicrobials.
“Individual farm usage can vary dramatically year-on-year, often in response to disease outbreaks, but the key to continual reductions in the industry is that any increase in usage is addressed at the time with remedial steps to address specific disease challenges.
“It is vital that all UK dairy farmers work closely with their vets to drive down antibiotic use across the board," Puddy added.
