The Bacteria Battle Plan
Proper antibiotic management is more than a fight against disease. Ranchers must also combat antimicrobial resistance.
By Nicole Lane Erceg
Imagine a future without antibiotics. No Z-pack when a sinus infection hits, or treatment when a child gets pneumonia and small infections could turn deadly. When animals show sign of illness, there would be no simple treatment to prescribe.
It is nearly impossible to picture. The toll on both human and animal life would be devastating.
Guy Ellis, D.V.M., ruminant technical services veterinarian for Merck Animal Health, says he cannot fathom the modern cattle industry without the ability to use antibiotics.
When penicillin was discovered in 1928, it changed the course of human and animal medicine for good. Further development of antibiotics inspired more use, which resulted in an issue that has garnered headlines in mainstream and agricultural media — antibiotic-resistant bacteria.
Antibiotics are a powerful tool available to cattle ranchers. They allow bacterial infections to be easily healed, reducing instances of cattle being diseased or dying and maintaining production levels. However, to preserve the efficacy of antibiotics and the ability to use them, Ellis says that cow-calf producers have a responsibility to make sure the medications are administered properly. Though antibiotic resistance in the U.S. cattle industry is low, overzealous use of antibiotics heightens the potential to worsen the issue, threatening animal welfare and human health.
Find the source
When faced with a situation where ranchers are considering treatment with antibiotics, Ellis says the first step is to discover what pathogen is causing the disease issue.
“A lot of times on cow-calf operations you are dealing with parasites or viruses that antibiotics won’t touch,” says Ellis. “Determine the problem. Then you can identify which antibiotic (if an antibiotic is needed) would best fit the situation.”
When disease does break out, Ellis says before reaching for a trusted antibiotic always stop first to determine the correct drug to use. While many ranchers have regular go-to medications sitting on the shelf, like penicillin or tetracycline, each antibiotic has a different mode of action. Using the wrong antibiotic to treat a disease will not heal the animal and may add to the resistance problem.
“The right antibiotic to use depends on the type of bug you are dealing with,” says Ellis. “If you grab the wrong one, then all you are doing is promoting resistance and making your disease problem worse.”
Using antibiotics well suited to the pathogen is one way ranchers can prevent resistance.
Build good relationships
When it comes to avoiding potential losses from disease, Ellis says the easiest fix can be found through a trusted veterinarian. The relationship between rancher and vet is what Ellis cites as the best tool in a cattleman’s arsenal to battle bacterial infections and antibiotic resistance.
“Lean on your veterinarian as to which antibiotics are best and how they should be used,” he says. “You don’t take an antibiotic as a human without the doctor first making that decision for you. You are not expected to know which one to take and the correct dosage. It should be the same with animals produced for food.”
In 2017, the Veterinary Feed Directive (VFD) was introduced to further responsible use of antibiotics for animals used in food production. The new rule requires cattle producers to obtain a written statement issued by a licensed veterinarian to use medicated feed, including feed-through antibiotics. For ranchers to get a VFD, an official veterinarian-client-patient relationship (VCPR) is required. Ellis says it’s a good reason to begin a conversation now, before treatment is imminent.
Members of Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association (TSCRA) can learn more about VFDs in a series of columns archived on the TSCRA Resources page. Click on Member Login at tscra.org, and then click on Resources in the blue navigation bar to reach the TSCRA Resources page. Type Veterinary Feed Directive into the Search box and find the VFD columns written in 2016 by Kristin Lewis Hawkins.
Invest in good immune systems
For ranchers at the cow-calf level, antibiotic resistance isn’t an everyday issue. However, all ranchers have a responsibility to protect antibiotic use by fighting resistance. As calves grow older, enduring the stress of weaning, shipping and commingling, some antibiotics are administered as a prevention protocol to avoid mass transmission of illness within new peer groups. The combination of animal stress and weak immune systems create the ideal atmosphere for antibiotic resistance, says Ellis. Cow-calf producers can protect themselves and the industry by investing in cattle health to reduce the instances where antibiotics need to be used both on and beyond the ranch. Proper nutrition, vaccines and low-stress management practices can all help prevent bacterial infections.
This mass treatment practice at the feedlot or backgrounding stage is effective at keeping disease at bay but is also the most common source of antibiotic resistance in the cattle industry. In cases of resistance, stronger types of antibiotics may be used to treat the problem. It’s a short fix, however, that adds to the growing resistance challenge.
“The more antibiotics we use, the greater the chance of resistance,” says Ellis.
Don’t forget the basics
Ellis directs ranchers to always read and follow antibiotic label instructions to help animals recover quickly and avoid adding to the disease problem. Each antibiotic is labeled to indicate if the medicine is to be given as an intravenous, intramuscular or subcutaneous injection, based on the absorption pattern of the drug.
Ellis says good, sharp, clean equipment is a must and to avoid the temptation of using a bottle that has been sitting on the shelf for an unknown amount of time. If some antibiotics sit too long, contamination can occur and cause reactions for the animal.
Unless otherwise directed by a veterinarian, he says not to stray from label instructions and always be aware of withdrawal times before sending animals to harvest.
“Follow the withdrawal times,” Ellis says. “Somebody is going to be eating the animals we raise, at some point. We need to make sure that if we use something like antibiotics in food-producing animals that we strictly follow the withdrawal times of those products.”
See Dr. Thomas Hairgrove’s interview in “The Right Way” in the April 2017 issue of The Cattleman for an explanation of how the wrong injection method can extend the withdrawal time of the drug.
A force for good
Disease and infections are unavoidable, which is why antibiotics are such a vital tool for cattle ranchers.
“We don’t have any new antibiotics on the horizon so we better take care of the ones we’ve got,” says Ellis. “Use them judiciously and responsibly.”
Through proper use of antibiotics, ranchers can use the drug that has the best probability of curing sick animals with minimal cost to production and the least risk to human health.
“Successful antibiotic use goes back to knowing what disease you are dealing with and using the correct antibiotics based on what the diagnostics show,” says Ellis.
By teaming up with a veterinarian to determine disease source, prescribing the best possible antibiotics and following the basics for administration, ranchers can build healthy cattle populations and produce safe beef, without sacrificing animal or human health. These simple protocols make the fight against bacterial infection and a future with antibiotics seem like a battle easily won.
“Antibiotics have their place and when used responsibly they work beautifully,” says Ellis. “They prevent diseases, they treat diseases and they prevent animal welfare concerns. When used responsibly, antibiotics are a great thing.” ❚
“Bacteria Battle Plan” is excerpted from the July 2017 issue of The Cattleman magazine.