Page 4 - Australian Pork Newspaper

Cattle feedlot antimicrobial stewardship practices positive
IN a report in the Aus- tralian Veterinary Jour- nal (January edition), herd-level data for an- timicrobial medicines used in Australian cat- tle feedlots was report- ed for the first time.
The data included the ad- ministration routes, reasons for use and disease syn- dromes treated.
It covered antimicrobial stewardship practices, in- cluding interactions with veterinarians, the use of protocols for veterinary treatments, induction and the management of treated animals.
The study, supported by Meat & Livestock Aus- tralia and managed by Bell Vet Services Queensland, together with lead author Dr Skye Badger at the Uni- versity of Adelaide School of Animal and Veterinary Sciences as well as a large multidisciplinary group, aimed to better understand antimicrobial use in the beef feedlot sector.
The study was based on a questionnaire mailed to feedlot operators.
Respondents were asked to report the percentage of
animals treated, purpose of use and disease conditions targeted for 26 antimicro- bial agents.
In feedlots, as with pork production businesses, an- timicrobial stewardship begins with the interaction between the vet and senior managers, where decisions are made about the most appropriate antimicrobi- als to treat and prevent disease on feedlots.
Of the 83 respondents to the questionnaire, most indicated a vet visited the feedlot premises at least once in the previous 12 months.
About 30 percent indi- cated a vet visited at least monthly.
Most respondents indi- cated the feedlot had a vet- erinary treatment protocol issued by a vet to guide the treatment of sick animals.
Almost all feedlots had a written induction guide for handling new arrivals.
They also assessed animals for a response to treatment before returning animals to their home pen.
Feedlot operators who responded to the survey re- lied most on antimicrobials
considered to be of low im- portance to human health.
Most feedlots gave in- jectable antimicrobials to fewer than 10 percent of animals.
The most-used injectable drugs were short-acting penicillin, short-acting oxytetracycline and tulath- romycin.
In-feed treatments were used in fewer than 20 percent of pens in the 12 months.
Ceftiofur, a drug regis- tered for use in beef cattle (but not in pigs) and rated as highly important to hu- man health, was used by about one-third of feedlots.
Overall, the frequency of antimicrobial use in large feedlots was higher than small feedlots.
Large feedlots also re- ported more vet visits and more had veterinary treat- ment protocols compared with small feedlots.
These results were ex- pected, given larger feed- lots face greater health challenges associated with co-mingling many cattle from different source herds, together with long transport distances.
The authors found, overall, the preference for antimicrobials of low importance for human health and evidence that practices related to anti- microbial stewardship are under way in feedlots to be very encouraging.
High standards of antimi- crobial stewardship in the beef feedlot sector are nec- essary, given its growing importance to the Austral- ian economy.
In 2017-2018, 2.8 million grain-fed cattle were mar- keted in Australia, repre- senting 38 percent of all adult cattle slaughtered.
In the same period, Aus- tralian grain-fed beef prod- ucts were exported to ma- jor international markets including Japan, South Ko- rea, China, the European Union and US.
Growth in beef feedlot production globally and increased interest in the impact of antimicrobial re- sistance on animal health and public health has led to a greater focus on anti- microbial use in this sector.
This extends to pig pro- duction.
Ross Cutler
If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it
HOW does Australia develop great-looking, great-tasting pork that attracts a premium price and competes on the global market?
That’s the challenge Australian Pork Limited set out to tackle with a two-day workshop in Sydney during February with a guest consultant from Canada.
The meat business is highly competitive and while competing on price is easy, earning and sustaining a premi- um is a challenge.
For some time we’ve been looking at how we develop premium Australian pork.
We know there are potential opportunities for ‘the Wagyu of pork’ in both an international and domestic setting.
Step one in that process is understand- ing ‘where are we now?’ in terms of consistency and quality.
Benchmarking is one way of answering this question, as it can help our supply chains gain an understand- ing of how their prod- ucts compare to com- petitor products both domestically and inter- nationally.
Our guest consult- ant, Michael Young, a Canadian beef and pork expert who has been closely associ- ated with the Canadian benchmarking pro- gram, shared his exper- tise with our industry during the two-day workshop.
Marketing Matters
Four Australian pork primal samples were benchmarked during a demonstration on day one that looked at the steps and measurements required to successfully run a benchmarking program.
The samples were benchmarked for meas- ures not only on the actual product, such as yield, meat colour, fat colour and depth and meat firmness, but also cutting performance and efficiency to meas- ure profitability.
The outcomes of the samples differed in cer- tain measures but there was one overall stand- out in terms of quality and yield performance.
Day two provided an opportunity to engage with industry on the program results, which were presented anony- mously as samples A, B, CandD.
This included how each sample performed across the key measure- ments and the ultimate financial performance indicators.
Representatives from
industry had the oppor- tunity to ask questions to better understand the impact of certain indicators on profit- ability and performance of their products.
This day generated positive interest and questions from industry.
The workshop helped identify and highlight potential opportunities for improving quality and consistency across the industry, which has benefits for both inter- national and domestic customers.
It is another step towards product differ- entiation that could help us capture premium value in a competitive marketplace
As we work through the learnings from this workshop and de- termine next steps, it has helped show the benefits of measuring product quality, de- termining a standard and evaluating perform- ance.
As management guru Peter Drucker said: “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it!”
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German states prepare for swine fever outbreak and intensify preventative strategies
WITH African swine fever circulating on Ger- many’s doorstep, Ger- man authorities are in- tensifying measures to keep the disease out of its national pig herd.
Germany’s Minister of Agriculture Barbara Otte-Kinast announced recently that Lower Sax- ony would follow in the footsteps of North-Rhine Westphalia to establish a wildlife epidemic pre- vention group.
She insisted other fed- eral states should follow suit because fast, consist- ent and co-ordinated ac- tion would be critical to mitigating an outbreak of ASF in Germany’s wild boar.
The virus has contin- ued to emerge in wild boar and domestic pig stocks in western Poland, threatening to move fur- ther west to Germany.
This said, German au- thorities are confident security measures al- ready implemented in
domestic production will keep the disease out – the problem will be with controlling its spread in wild pigs, which are prevalent in rural states.
The establishment of a wildlife epidemic pre- vention group would al- low the rapid co-ordina- tion of carcass collection, site decontamination and hunting of infected wild boar, which greatly re- duces the chances of the disease spreading in that environment.
The ability to install fencing quickly would
also aid with mitigating boar movement.
The Interest Group of Pig Owners of Germany (ISN) said a lot has hap- pened in the past year to prepare for ASF in Germany so pig farmers can continue to deliver adequate numbers of pigs if an outbreak was to occur.
“North-Rhine West- phalia has taken a big step forward with the es- tablishment of an animal disease prevention com- pany,” ISN said.
Page 4 – Australian Pork Newspaper, March 2020
www.porknews.com.au