Some 79% of participating dairy herds hit the Ruma 2020 target of 21mg/kg PCU by March 2021, with a 98% reduction in the use of critically important antibiotics in the same 2018-2021 period, according to a new report from Kingshay.

That was the good news story from the first Dairy Antimicrobial Focus Report, based on data from 940 dairy farmers and 156 vet practices, which also highlighted that opportunity remains on the uptake of teat sealant as part of selective dry cow therapy.

Report author Christina Ford said the data provided reliable summary of trends in antimicrobial use in dairy since 2018, which will be of interest to farmers, milk processors, food industry and policy makers.

“The overall message is exceedingly positive with 79% of herds meeting the Ruma 2020 target by March 2021, and the decline in use of critically important antimicrobials was outstanding, a drop from 1.1 mg/kg PCU in 2018 to 0.02 mg/kg PCU in 2021.”

However, the data collected by Kingshay shows a large amount of variation between individual herd results, which ranged from 0.28 to 87.51mg/kg PCU in 2021.

“We found that it’s not always the same herds in the highest 25% antimicrobial usage year-on-year, nor is it necessarily the same farms consistently using the lowest quantities.

“There’s also no correlation at all when looking at different herd characteristics such as yield, herd size, breed. This demonstrates that it’s possible to make strides in reducing antimicrobials use in any farming system,” she adds.

Selective dry cow therapy is a key strategy to move from treating every cow, known as prophylactic use, to using antimicrobials only as needed. For vet and senior clinical director at Kingshay, Tim Potter, the report shows an opportunity for increased uptake of teat sealants to protect cows from infection without antibiotics.

“The teat sealant usage in 2021 was at 0.39 courses/cow, which was below the Ruma target of 0.7 courses per cow,” says Dr Potter.

“Last year, 37% of herds were not using teat sealants at all, so there’s definitely room for improvement. Vets, farmers and wider industry need to work together to address the challenges around teat sealant use.

“Appropriate training around use of teat sealants is essential, as improper use and poor hygiene protocols can result in bacteria being trapped inside the udder, having the opposite effect on cow health and productivity.”

Dr Potter explains that vets are seeing increased demand from farmers for training in this area.

“As a result, VetPartners has invested in the training of our vets, and specific training aids to enable us to do this effectively, to ensure we’re able to support our farmers as best we can.”

For more information and insights, the first annual Dairy Antimicrobial Focus Report can be accessed via the Kingshay website: https://www.kingshay.com/dairy-costings/dairy-antimicrobial-focus-report/