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Sustainable minimization of antibiotic drug use due to quarter-selective dry off in dairy cows (MinimA)

Project


Project code: MRI-MF-08-928 1050 MinimA, 2819MDT212
Contract period: 01.09.2020 - 28.02.2023
Budget: 124,077 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
Keywords: animal welfare, diagnostics, therapy, resistance, animal health, prevention, antibiotics, cattle, knowledge transfer, networking

Maintaining the therapeutic efficiency of antibiotics in human and veterinary medicine requires their strictly demand-oriented use. In dairy production, antibiotics are used at dry off to cure mastitis and prevent new infections. Decision trees that select the animals to be treated on the base of milk recordings combined with a cowside test are increasingly used, but often base on inflammation parameters rather than on the detection of pathogens. MinimA follows a different approach that is consistently oriented towards detection of pathogens: only infected udder quarters of the cow are dried off under antibiotic protection. All other quarters receive only an internal teat sealer to prevent new infections. This approach has already been successfully tested on experimental farms and is now being tested for its suitability in practice. This is done in a network of dairy farms in coordination with the farm veterinarians. After clarifying the infection status of the herds, the farms dry off the quarters of their cows according to the results of bacteriological sample analysis. Treatment success is checked after calving. In workshops, which follow the stable school principle, the project farms exchange information about the procedure, and directly report back their experiences and suggestions in feedback discussions with the scientists. At the end of the project a freely accessible guideline will be developed based on this mutual knowledge transfer and the experiment’s results. The guideline should enable other dairy farms to apply the method to their own cows. Aim is to achieve a sustainable reduction in use of antibiotics at drying off without impairing animal health. Thus, MinimA also serves the implementation of the WHO's One Health approach into dairy farming.

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