AGRICULTURE NEWS - 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.

Read the full article here on the Caxton publication, Farmer's Weekly