Know How / Medicines

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Washing hands and wearing gloves while cleaning and disinfecting livestock trailers can help to reduce the spread of zoonotic pathogens as well as antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. Following government guidelines for cleaning…

DAIRY

Failure to adhere to vaccine protocols could prove to be an expensive mistake for dairy farms. Vet Sophie Prichard says such herds will not have optimal protection against disease and…

CALVING

Giving all heifers a pain relief injection after calving will help them through the transition process of joining the milking herd and thereby prevent metabolic issues and lameness. In the…

DAIRY

The downside of a dairy herd with less than 5% mastitis is having to maintain a stock of in-date antibiotics. This is the case for the Hodginkson family, who run…

LIVESTOCK

In the two years that Dominic McKenzie has been farm manager at Long Lane Development Farm in Somerset, the antibiotics use has fallen by 60% at the calf-rearing unit that…

DAIRY

James Yeatman has cut antibiotics usage in his block-calving dairy herd by 80% in the past eight years, with the main reductions around drying off, mastitis and calf respiratory disease.…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

Mastitis is a major challenge for dairy farmers, from both cow health and economic perspectives, with recent figures from Kingshay estimating a cost/case of £386 – based on a milk…

HEALTH AND WELFARE

As farm vets working in practice in the UK, we have an essential role in ensuring that farming is part of the solution to the climate crisis. Vets are in…

MEDICINES

Farmers are being urged to consider vaccinating their livestock against bluetongue serotype 3 (BTV-3), and to help with decision-making, a new vaccination finance calculator has been deployed. As part of…

LIVESTOCK

The dairy sector has achieved further reductions of antibiotics usage without compromising on the health and welfare of animals, a new report has found. The annual Kingshay Antimicrobial Focus Report…

MEDICINES

Resistance by livestock pathogens to multiple antibiotics is at its lowest point for 10 years, as a new report shows that most sectors had either hit their target to reduce…

HUSBANDRY

A good injection technique prevents damage to valuable carcass cuts and reduces the risk of injury to livestock and the handler. If an injection is administered incorrectly or with a…

MEDICINES

Antimicrobial resistance, and specifically antibiotics resistance, are high on the agenda for animal agriculture and veterinary medicine. Government and industry targets have been set for antibiotics reduction and antibiotics use is…

US poultry integrator Sanderson Farms has said it will not phase out antibiotics from its farms, taking a position that runs contrary to many other similar companies in the USA.…