Richert Roxann M, Cicconi Kellie M, Gamroth Mike J, Schukken Ynte H, Stiglbauer Katie E, Ruegg Pamela L
Department of Dairy Science, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI 53706, USA.
J Am Vet Med Assoc. 2013 Jun 15;242(12):1732-43. doi: 10.2460/javma.242.12.1732.
To identify management factors associated with veterinary usage by organic and conventional dairy farms.
Prospective case-control study.
292 farms.
Organic farms in New York, Oregon, and Wisconsin were matched to conventional farms on the basis of location and herd size. During a single herd visit, a questionnaire was administered, information about animal disease incidence and number of veterinarian visits in the preceding 60 days was collected, and forms to record similar information during the 60 days after the visit were left for the herd manager to complete. For analysis, conventional herds were classified as either grazing or nongrazing. Multiple correspondence analysis was used to assess relationships among management factors and selected outcomes for frequency of veterinary usage.
Intensive management practices were closely associated with frequent veterinary usage. Generally, organic management practices were associated with less frequent veterinary usage than were conventional management practices. Conventional grazing practices were associated with intermediate veterinary usage (more than organic practices but less than intensive practices), whereas conventional nongrazing practices were associated with frequent veterinary usage. Cost of routinely scheduled veterinarian visits/45 kg (100 lb) of milk produced/y was greater for small farms than that for large farms.
Results suggested that management intensiveness was more closely associated with frequency of veterinary usage than was organic status; therefore, veterinarians should characterize farms by factors other than organic status when investigating which farms are most likely to use their services. Economic factors substantially affected routine veterinary usage on small farms.
确定与有机和传统奶牛场兽医使用相关的管理因素。
前瞻性病例对照研究。
292个农场。
纽约、俄勒冈和威斯康星州的有机农场根据地理位置和牛群规模与传统农场进行匹配。在单次牛群访问期间，发放问卷，收集有关动物疾病发病率和前60天兽医就诊次数的信息，并留下表格以便牛群管理者记录访问后60天内的类似信息。为进行分析，将传统牛群分为放牧或非放牧两类。采用多重对应分析来评估管理因素与兽医使用频率的选定结果之间的关系。
集约化管理措施与频繁的兽医使用密切相关。一般来说，与传统管理措施相比，有机管理措施与较少的兽医使用相关。传统放牧措施与中等程度的兽医使用相关（比有机措施多但比集约化措施少），而传统非放牧措施与频繁的兽医使用相关。小型农场每生产45千克（100磅）牛奶/年定期安排的兽医就诊成本高于大型农场。
结果表明，管理集约化程度比有机状态与兽医使用频率的关联更紧密；因此，兽医在调查哪些农场最有可能使用其服务时，应以有机状态以外的因素来描述农场特征。经济因素对小型农场的常规兽医使用有重大影响。
