Livestock farmers need to concentrate more on vaccines and less on antibiotics if the farming industry is to further reduce the risk of antimicrobial resistance, according to those in the know.

In moving the focus of livestock farming towards disease prevention, Dr Paul Williams of MSD Animal Health, said vaccines help maintain the benefits antimicrobials have provided and play an important part in retaining their life-giving properties for generations to come.

"The farming community is working hard to find more effective ways to reduce disease without compromising animal welfare, and in turn increase productivity. To do this, the industry must focus on disease prevention, not disease treatment," he told delegates attending the Looking Beyond Antibiotics conference, in London.

"This is achieved through high standards of biosecurity to reduce disease entering farms, good management, husbandry and hygiene practices and the focus of this paper – vaccination.

“The success of vaccination in preventing disease has significant potential to reduce antibiotic use, as has already been well demonstrated in the pig, poultry and aquaculture industries. With low penetration rates in the other livestock sectors at the moment, we hope the Time to Vaccinate initiative helps farmers and their veterinary surgeons make informed decisions about vaccination as part of their overall animal health plans.”

He said that vaccination rates in the cattle, sheep and pig sectors remain low, with the penetration rate for both infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR) in cattle and toxoplasmosis in sheep currently sitting at 22%. In pigs, vaccination for Glässer’s disease is around 26%.

Yet, vaccination can be used to control bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD), pneumonia, neonatal sour, Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis (IBR), in cattle. Professor David Barrett of the Bristol Veterinary School also highlighted the benefits of clean housing and bedding to help reduce levels of scour in calves and mastitis when drying off dairy cows and urged producers to use selective dry cow treatment instead.

Dr Fiona Lovatt of Flock Health Ltd, pointed out that vaccines are available to reduce lameness, abortions, clostridial diseases and pasteurellosis in sheep, while Ian Carroll, business development manager of Garth Pig Practice, said vaccines control such diseases as porcine pleuropneumonia, Glässer’s, streptoccus suis, and Ileitis in the pig sector.

In moving the focus of livestock farming towards disease prevention, vaccines help maintain the

benefits antimicrobials have given throughout our lifetimes and play an important part in retaining their life-giving properties for generations to come, concluded Dr Williams.