Thursday, March 28, 2024

Sorting out the bugs

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The New Zealand Veterinary Association has released a report on the issue of growing antibiotic resistance. Its goal by 2030 is to maintain the health and wellness of all animals without the need for antibiotics, other than in exceptional or emergency circumstances.
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The aim is to preserve the efficacy of existing antibiotics when most needed, NZVA’s Antimicrobial Resistance Strategy Group chairman Steve Merchant says.

“We are entering a post-antibiotic era. They’ve been fantastic for 100 years, but if we continue to expect them to be available and effective, it’s quite a vulnerable position.”

Blanket dry cow therapy (DCT) was one practice that had to be addressed to combat antibiotic resistance, he said.

“I see it as a big vulnerability to the industry and the economy how we rely so heavily on DCT.

“We need to recognise that if we don’t change we are very vulnerable to decisions and agendas out of our control.”

There was no realistic alternative to DCT available at the moment, but the industry had to be innovative so it could continue to have access to effective antibiotics in the future.

“They are a scarce resource and we can’t regard them as something that will always be available.”

The NZ dairy industry accounted for almost 40% of the total national antibiotics used. The largest use of antibiotics was to treat mastitis, accounting for 29% of national use, costing $273m every year.

DCT accounted for 4500kg of antibiotics every year and 8% of the total antibiotics used on animals.

DCT helped to reduce the number of mastitis cases to 60% fewer than in other developed dairy countries. Blanket DCT of a herd was also understood to prevent at least 80% of new infections and to cure up to 80% of existing infections. 

Although the success of blanket DCT was evident, it was also indiscriminate with many animals treated infected or likely to be infected, Merchant said.

“This is the kind of non-therapeutic antibiotic use that the NZVA is aiming to replace.”

The challenge for NZ and the dairy industry would be to find alternatives to antibiotics, which would require high health husbandry, onfarm technology and substitution.

For example, alternatives like teat sealant instead of DCT were reported to be clinically effective and economically viable.

The NZVA’s report and goal to reduce antibiotic use by 2030 was a world-leading mission statement and had been commended by the World Veterinary Association, Merchant said.

NZ was estimated to be the third-lowest user of antibiotics for animals and was already doing extremely well. 

If NZ could lead on reducing antibiotic use further, and developing new technologies and methods to assist with this goal, there could be a real economic advantage.

“The most fundamental gain could be in future-proofing the supply chain to overseas markets. Concern about antibiotics and resistance is an emerging consumer issue that could affect market access and overseas regulation.”

It could be reflected in a premium market, Merchant said.

“If we can say we have antibiotics nicely squared away and we can use them when need be, but we are leading the world in innovation and technologies and our products are seen to be available under that stewardship, we could argue a premium position in the world.”

That could arguably address some of the current volatility in dairy prices for NZ farmers, he said.

The issue the NZ dairy industry would face with trying to meet this 2030 goal, was achieving that alongside the Government’s goal to double primary industry exports by 2025.

To meet the target, it could mean more animals or more production per animal, putting more pressure on NZ’s traditional grass system.

More animals per worker put pressure on animal husbandry and increased intensification could lead to increased risk of infectious disease.

The industry would have to strike the right balance. 

One of the other issues the NZVA would be looking into was the use of antibiotic milk in calf rearing.

“If we all follow the rules it is safe, but nevertheless it is probably one of the issues that needs to be addressed.”

There was an argument that it was better that the antibiotics became biodegradable after being digested and it was better than the antibiotics entering the environment directly.

If there were fewer antibiotics used in the system to start with, it would become less of an issue in the future anyway, Merchant said.

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