Using antibiotics to prevent disease is not in my sphere of expertise. I do know a little about it, but antibiotics are not used to prevent disease on cow/calf operations nearly to the extent as in feedlots, for example. So, this post may be slightly less informative than the others, but be sure to check out the "Further Reading" section at the end if you want to know more.
Preventing disease is hugely important in any livestock operation. Have you ever wondered why the general public aren't allowed in hog barns? It's because people carry a lot of diseases that are deadly to pigs. All responsible farmers do their very best to prevent disease, because it is expensive to treat disease later on, and because we just don't want to see our animals die or be sick. There are a number of different tools that farmers can use to prevent disease, including implementing bio-security measures (like the hog barns), feeding high quality feed for good nutrition, vaccinating the herd against disease, reducing the risk of physical injury, and using antibiotics for prevention. Today I will focus on the use of antibiotics for disease prevention.
The most common occurrence of using antibiotics to prevent disease is when cattle are shipped to a feedlot. The calves have reached a stage of maturity that allows them to live on regular feed without needing their mothers' milk, so they are weaned from their mothers, vaccinated (a common protocol on cow/calf operations is to vaccinate at weaning), loaded onto a truck, and sent to the feedlot.
It's like when teenagers leave home for college. They no longer have access to their mothers' cooking, they are stressed out, far from home, and are mixing with a whole bunch of other germ-carrying, stressed out teenagers who aren't eating properly any more. At the beginning of college (and after breaks, like Reading Week or Christmas break), all of the students, especially the ones living in residence, get sick. I know. I spent six years observing and experiencing this phenomenon.
Back to the calves: these calves are coming from many different farms and herds, each with its own stockpile of germs. The calves don't eat right because they are stressed out and then they get sick. Then the feedlot guys have to deal with a whole lot of sick cattle.
What are the feedlot guys to do? They take measures to prevent disease. One way of doing this is to automatically give antibiotics to every calf coming in to the feedlot. That way, any calves that are already sick, but not showing symptoms yet, get treated and won't be as likely to spread the disease. Also, any calves who might catch a disease from a sick calf a few days in have an extra boost, feel better, and start off eating better. All around, the calves feel better and are healthier.
But isn't it dangerous to have antibiotics floating around in calves that will soon become someone's meal? Remember, all animals that are given antibiotics must go through a withdrawal period before they are butchered. This allows enough time for the antibiotic residues to totally pass out of the animal's system before it is slaughtered. All Canadian meat is antibiotic-free, then.
Doesn't such use of antibiotics increase resistance, though? Yes. Bacteria are becoming resistant to certain antibiotics. Because of this, it is becoming more difficult to access certain antibiotics, especially ones that related to antibiotics used in human health. In order to access these antibiotics, farmers and feedlot operators need to consult with veterinarians to determine what to use to still be able to prevent disease, and to avoid causing the tools they use to become ineffective (which is what happens when bacteria become resistant to antibiotics). The good news is that research is being done to find alternative methods of preventing disease in livestock, which means that antibiotics will not need to be used for prevention and they will not need to be used as often for treatment, because livestock won't be getting sick in the first place!
Any industry has room for improvement. The beef industry has recognized that the practice of using antibiotics to prevent disease, while currently effective, is not going to be good in the long term. That is why various organizations are working to find more tools for preventing disease, and why other tools are being relied on more heavily (like bio-security measures and low-stress weaning techniques). Over time, the livestock industry will change to reflect the use of these new methods. Until then, we still need to use the tools we have right now to keep our animals healthy.
Any industry has room for improvement. The beef industry has recognized that the practice of using antibiotics to prevent disease, while currently effective, is not going to be good in the long term. That is why various organizations are working to find more tools for preventing disease, and why other tools are being relied on more heavily (like bio-security measures and low-stress weaning techniques). Over time, the livestock industry will change to reflect the use of these new methods. Until then, we still need to use the tools we have right now to keep our animals healthy.
Remember Dopey? He survived the broken leg and subsequent infection, but died later from a different disease that infected our herd. Once we figured out why our calves were dying, we were able to take the proper measures to prevent other calves from getting the disease. That meant vaccinating them to prevent disease so that we would not have to use antibiotics for treatment later.
Further Reading
