Promoting Judicious Antimicrobial Use in Beef Production: The Role of Quarantine

Simple Summary The development of cost-effective strategies that can be easily implemented on-farms is pivotal to promote a more judicious use of antimicrobials and its reduction in livestock industry. Indeed, inappropriate use of antimicrobials is linked to the phenomenon of antimicrobial resistance, a global health concern for both humans and animals. Studies on other food-producing species have confirmed the effectiveness of biosecurity measures on the reduction of antimicrobials, of while little is still known in beef production. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effect of quarantine as a strategy to reduce medications in beef production. This measure resulted to be a viable strategy to reduce antimicrobials in beef cattle without compromising animal health and performance. The reduction was evident especially with regards to treatments administered for respiratory diseases, indeed the bovine respiratory disease is one of the most detrimental health issues affecting beef cattle. Penicillins was the most used class of antimicrobials, highlighting the need for an urgent decrease of such broad-spectrum medications, known for their contribution to the development of resistance. Although implementing new strategies on-farm can be costly for farmers, the reduction of antimicrobials on the long term and the support from EU authority may help to overcome some initial disadvantage. Judicious antimicrobial stewardship in livestock industry is needed to reduce the use of antimicrobials (AMU) and the associated risk of antimicrobial resistance. Biosecurity measures are acknowledged for their role against the spread of diseases and the importance in reducing AMU in different species. However, their effectiveness in beef production has been scarcely considered. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of the quarantine strategy on AMU in beef cattle. A total of 1206 Charolaise animals in five farms were included in the trial. Roughly half of the animals followed the standard procedure of the fattening cycle (no-quarantine; NO-QUA group) and half followed a 30-day period of quarantine (QUA group) since their arrival. Performance and antimicrobial data were recorded and a treatment incidence 100 (TI100it) per animal was calculated. Penicillins was the most used class of antimicrobials. Differences between groups were significant for males only, with NO-QUA group having greater TI100it (3.76 vs. 3.24; p < 0.05) and lower body weight at slaughter (713.4 vs. 723.7 kg; p < 0.05) than QUA group. Results suggest that quarantine strategy can reduce AMU in males without compromising their performance, whereas further investigation is needed for females.

Automated summary

This study aimed to investigate the effect of quarantine strategy on reducing antimicrobials in beef cattle production. The results showed that quarantine strategy can effectively reduce antimicrobial use in male cattle without compromising their performance. However, the effectiveness of biosecurity measures in beef production is still poorly understood and further research is needed.