Bovine vaccines increasing while antibiotic sales drop

Beef and dairy farmers are using more vaccines, but less antibiotics, according to AHDB.

A report by the farm levy body reveals the total number of vaccines sold for use in cattle increased by 15% between 2011 and 2017.

Vaccine sales peaked in 2014, but dropped in 2015 and 2016, due to the collapse in milk prices and dairy farmer incomes.

Derek Armstrong from AHDB said: “Farmers are prepared to spend money when they have it to protect the health and welfare of their animals, but when incomes fall and overdrafts are under pressure, vaccines may be a victim of costcutting.”

He said a drop in sales of antibiotics for use in livestock in 2017 shows that farmers are being proactive and looking for ways to improve animal health without relying on antimicrobials.

The use of vaccines for Infectious Bovine Rhinotracheitis (IBR) and calf pneumonia was up 43% and 30% respectively.

The survey also estimates that nearly half of all breeding cattle which could have been vaccinated for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea were vaccinated last year, but less than a quarter of cattle at risk of IBR were vaccinated.

Mr Armstrong added: “Some farmers are prepared to take the risk and don’t vaccinate or leave it too late to vaccinate and give their animals useful protection.

“When disease strikes there are inevitably costs both in terms of lost performance and poorer animal welfare and sometimes avoidable deaths.”

Picture: PA. Reduction in use of vaccines often coincides with falling incomes.