Two research projects funded through the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research's International Consortium for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Agriculture (ICASA) could help beef producers keep cattle healthy while using fewer antibiotics, The Fence Post reports. The projects received more than $1.06 million in combined ICASA and matching funds.

Researchers led by Dr Brad White of Kansas State University built models to predict which groups of cattle are most likely to benefit from metaphylaxis, preventive treatment of a whole group against bovine respiratory disease (BRD). Their first analysis found that group treatment did not improve health enough to outweigh its cost in 72% of the groups studied, and that cattle age and the severity of health challenges mattered.

BRD is the most common and costly disease of North American cattle, estimated to cause more than $1 billion a year in losses to US beef operations, and unnecessary antibiotic use raises the risk of resistant bacteria. The models still need testing in commercial feedyards.

A team led by Dr Dale Woerner of Texas Tech University found that liver abscesses in beef-on-dairy crossbred cattle are linked to changes in the rumen rather than inherited traits, so breeding is unlikely to reduce them while rumen-health management may. Blood tests predicted abscesses with 80% accuracy, offering a route to earlier detection.

Liver abscesses cost the beef industry an estimated $256 million a year through slower growth, poorer feed efficiency and processing losses. The release came from FFAR.

Source: The Fence Post