Health and Medicine

Calf fattening: Fewer antibiotics also a viable option

Just a few simple steps let farmers drastically reduce their use of antibiotics and improve animal wellbeing without making them any less competitive. That was an insight revealed by Bernese researchers in a practical test of their specially developed “open air calf” method, which is unique in Switzerland to date.

The Swiss calf fattening industry needs enormous quantities of antibiotics – even if the sector has been successfully working to reduce their use over the past few years. Many operations are shying away from taking any more drastic measures because they’re often unsure about what kind of impact this will have on their economic efficiency. Researchers of the University of Bern have now developed a fattening concept that gets by with fewer antibiotics – and have also thoroughly tested this new concept in the real world. The results of this project, which was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) within the scope of the National Research Program "Antimicrobial Resistance" (NRP 72) as well as by IP-SUISSE, the Federation of Migros Cooperatives and the Swiss Federal Office for Agriculture, are clear: Compared to the established standard of the IP-SUISSE label, antibiotic use was reduced greatly at the experimental farms while simultaneously improving animal welfare and keeping profitability at a similar level.

The first few weeks are decisive

When developing what they refer to as the “Outdoor Veal Calf” concept, a team headed up by directorate of studies Mireille Meylan of the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern first analyzed why fattened calves develop symptoms that make antibiotic use necessary. Here, the focus was on pneumonia. This is a common problem in the fattening business and a main reason behind antibiotic treatments.

“Many animals are exposed to high risks of infection, especially in their first weeks of life,” says Meylan. “Since they’re mixed with other calves while being transported from the farm where they were born to the farm where they’ll be fattened and then put into even larger groups upon arrival, pathogens often spread at lightning speed.” And that’s precisely what this new concept addresses: Fatteners should only purchase new calves from farms located nearby to prevent mixing animals from different farms during the short transports.

Upon arrival, the animals spend the first few weeks in single-calf, outdoor igloos and are vaccinated against pneumonia. Only after this quarantine are they put into smaller groups of no more than ten calves. They then remain with this small group during the remainder of the fattening process, which lasts around four months on average. They always stay outside, where they have a group igloo and a roofed pen with deep litter.

Healthier animals

The question of whether that really leads to healthier animals and fewer antibiotics in real life was tested at 19 calf fattening farms in the cantons of Bern, Fribourg, Lucerne, Aargau and Solothurn over a 12-month period. The scientists from the University of Bern visited each farm at least once a month to document both calf health and welfare. They then did the same on 19 reference farms in the same region where operations were in compliance with IP-SUISSE specifications, a label that also boasts high animal welfare requirements.

“That gave us a direct comparison between the two methods,” says veterinarian Jens Becker, who conducted most of the health check-ups. It became apparent that the calves held in accordance with the “Outdoor Veal Calf” concept not only suffered fewer respiratory and digestive diseases, but that premature deaths were also less common. “That’s remarkable, especially since animal health at the reference farms was exemplary,” says Becker.

Five times fewer antibiotics

Since concept’s main objective is to reduce the use of antibiotics, Becker kept meticulous records of antibiotic use with the farmers’ help. “What we saw exceeded our expectations by far,” he says. While one in every two calves required antibiotics sometime during its life on the reference farms, this was only the case for one in six of the “outdoor veal calves”. And the differences were even bigger over the course of the entire treatment: Farms that implemented the new concept reported that the number of days in treatment was five times lower than at the reference farms.

Hardly any financial differences

Finally, Mireille Meylan and her team also analyzed the financial aspects of the “Outdoor Veal Calf” concept. Because that’s the decisive factor when it comes to putting the concept into practice. For this, they calculated the precise costs that a fattener incurs for each calf – including everything from calf’s cost, the work required and the feed. Two approaches were used for these calculations: first based on the real numbers obtained through the experiment and, second, using average figures for individual cost items as indicated in the annual publication called the “Contribution Margin Catalog of the Agricultural Industry” (Deckungsbeitragskatalog der landwirtschaftlichen Produktionszweige). Despite a few minor differences, both variants showed that, from a financial perspective, fattening in accordance with the “Outdoor Veal Calf” concept is largely on a par with the practices employed by the IP-SUISSE label.

“That’s not any big surprise,” says Ueli Straub of AGRIDEA, the Swiss agricultural extension center for cantonal extension services, which collaborated on this portion of the study. “Feed and the purchase price account for ninety percent of the direct costs incurred for a fattened calf.” Because of that, the rest of the factors don’t have much of an impact. On top of that, the advantages and disadvantages of each system largely cancel each other out: While “outdoor veal calves” require a little more work, this is offset by other factors including the lower mortality rate and good rate of daily weight gain.

A pragmatic path to the future

Mireille Meylan draws an extremely positive conclusion from the project: “We’ve shown that the use of antibiotics can be slashed drastically, at least at farm-based calf fattening operations. Using a pragmatic approach that also makes financial sense.” However, we based our economic viability calculations on the assumption that farmers using the “Outdoor Veal Calf” approach – just like the IP-SUISSE farms – receive direct payments under the RAUS program for ensuring that the animals have sufficient access to fresh air in accordance with a defined standard. Because of the roof over the litter-covered pen, however, this is not yet the case. To ensure that the concept can really be implemented on a widespread basis, it needs to be recognized by the labels, federal offices and wholesale establishments. According to Meylan, though, experience shows that road is a long one. But there shouldn’t be much doubt about its viability anymore - and that it would be worthwhile in the fight against antibiotic resistance.

Source: Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF