A PINCH OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE Reducing on-farm disease as part of judicious antibiotic use
by Marissa Silva, MVB, California Department of Food and Agriculture’s Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship Branch and Gaby Maier, DVM DACVPM, University of California Cooperative Extension
Antibiotic stewardship, which encompasses factors like disease prevention, accurate diagnosis and targeted treatment, can save you money and increase the health and production of your animals. Implementing strategies to reduce the most frequent diseases that warrant antibiotic use should be a key foundation in your herd health plan. In 2017, the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) Antimicrobial Use and Stewardship (AUS) program partnered with CCA to produce a cow-calf survey that assessed antibiotic use practices. Almost 1,000 cattle producers in California voluntarily participated. The top diseases that warranted the use of antibiotics across adult cows and calves were pinkeye, bovine respiratory disease and calf scours. One of the main goals of antibiotic stewardship is to reduce antibiotic use through disease prevention. CDFA AUS partnered with Gaby Maier, Maier, DVM, Beef Extension Specialist at the University of California, Davis Cooperative Extension to provide up-to-date disease prevention resources for California cow calf producers. The goal of this collaboration was to compile the most
20 California Cattleman October 2022
recent research on these issues, publish scientific papers and create engaging resources to promote strategies for disease reduction and provide helpful prompts for discussion between producers and their local veterinarian.
THREE DISEASE-FOCUSED RESOURCES FOR CALIFORNIA COW CALF OPERATIONS
The Cow Calf Disease Management Series was published this spring, and is designed to help producers and veterinarians target infectious bovine keratoconjunctivitis (IBK, pinkeye), scours and bovine respiratory disease (BRD). These conditions result in increased economic costs due to labor and equipment for treatment, potential production loss in the herd and higher antibiotic use in cows and calves. Marissa Silva, DVM, with CDFA AUS presented these findings from the survey and introduced this new series at the 2022 midyear meeting to CCA’s Animal Health Committee. These resources can be used as handy field guides for prevention and control of these diseases, or when you need a quick opinion out