Tips To Reduce Antibiotic Usage

Rising concern over antibiotic resistance is forcing livestock producers across the world to change their production management practices. Dr John Patience explains to Glenneis Kriel how pig producers can benefit from reducing antibiotic usage.

Lowering antibiotic usage is easier said than done, as it usually coincides with a drop in farm margins. Dr John Patience, a professor in animal science specialising in pig nutrition at Iowa State University in the US, says this is primarily due to higher mortalities, but also because, as production becomes more labour-intensive, pigs take longer to reach slaughter weights and require more vaccines and floor space to thrive than conventionally produced pigs.

The general trend, therefore, is not an outright ban on antibiotics, but a shift away from using them as growth promoters. In addition, disease treatments are becoming more focused.

“Where blanket treatments might have been given preventively in the past, the idea now is to treat only sick individual animals when the risk of infection is high,” he says. “Group treatments are seen as a last resort when all other alternatives have been exhausted.”

Greater emphasis is also being placed on correct diagnostics to ensure the right antibiotics are used at the right dosage to treat specific diseases.

The dosing procedure is also kept as short as possible, which is why antibiotics are increasingly delivered in water rather than feed. This is easier and simpler, and sick pigs tend to drink water rather than eat, especially after weaning.

BIOSECURITY AND HYGIENE

A multidisciplinary approach involving improved genetics, animal husbandry and nutrition, as well as better health management, building engineering design and operation, is required to offset the negative spin-offs of lower antibiotic usage. Patience, however, places hygiene and biosecurity at the top of this list.

“Biosecurity should be redoubled, as it’s your first line of defence against disease. Its ultimate goal is to prevent anything that might be carrying a harmful organism from getting near your animals.”