Business Economics Group, Social Sciences, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, the Netherlands.
Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health GmbH, Binger Strasse 173, 55216 Ingelheim am Rhein, Germany.
J Dairy Sci. 2018 Apr;101(4):3387-3397. doi: 10.3168/jds.2017-12869. Epub 2018 Feb 2.
Recently, it has been shown that the addition of meloxicam to standard antimicrobial therapy for clinical mastitis (CM) improves the conception rate of dairy cows contracting CM in the first 120 d in milk. The objective of our study was to assess whether this improved reproduction through additional treatment with meloxicam would result in a positive net economic benefit for the farmer. We developed a stochastic bio-economic simulation model, in which a dairy cow with CM in the first 120 d in milk was simulated. Two scenarios were simulated in which CM cases were treated with meloxicam in conjunction with antimicrobial therapy or with antimicrobial therapy alone. The scenarios differed for conception rates (31% with meloxicam or 21% without meloxicam) and for the cost of CM treatment. Sensitivity analyses were undertaken for the biological and economic components of the model to assess the effects of a wide range of inputs on inferences about the cost effectiveness of meloxicam treatment. Model results showed an average net economic benefit of €42 per CM case per year in favor of the meloxicam scenario. Cows in the no-meloxicam treatment scenario had higher returns on milk production, lower costs upon calving, and reduced costs of treatment. However, these did not outweigh the savings associated with lower feed intake, reduced number of inseminations, and the reduced culling rate. The net economic benefit favoring meloxicam therapy was a consequence of the better reproductive performance in the meloxicam scenario in which cows had a shorter calving to conception interval (132 vs. 143 d), a shorter intercalving interval (405 vs. 416 d), and fewer inseminations per conception (2.9 vs. 3.7) compared with cows in the no-meloxicam treatment scenario. This resulted in a shorter lactation, hence a lower lactational milk production (8,441 vs. 8,517 kg per lactation) with lower feeding costs in the meloxicam group. A lower culling rate (12 vs. 25%) resulted in lower replacement costs in the meloxicam treatment scenario. All of the scenarios evaluated in the sensitivity analyses favored meloxicam treatment over no meloxicam. This study demonstrated that improvements in conception rate achieved by the use of meloxicam, as additional therapy for mild to moderate CM in the first 120 d in milk, have positive economic benefits. This inference remained true over a wide range of technical and economic inputs, demonstrating that use of meloxicam is likely to be cost effective across many production systems.
最近的研究表明，在治疗临床型乳腺炎（CM）的标准抗菌治疗中添加美洛昔康可以提高奶牛在产奶期前 120 天内的受胎率。我们的研究目的是评估通过额外使用美洛昔康进行治疗是否会使农民获得正向的净经济效益。我们开发了一个随机的生物经济模拟模型，其中模拟了一只在产奶期前 120 天内患有 CM 的奶牛。我们模拟了两种情况，即使用美洛昔康联合抗菌治疗或仅用抗菌治疗来治疗 CM 病例。这两种情况的受孕率不同（使用美洛昔康的受孕率为 31%，不使用美洛昔康的受孕率为 21%），而且 CM 治疗的费用也不同。我们对模型的生物学和经济学组成部分进行了敏感性分析，以评估广泛的输入对美洛昔康治疗成本效益的推断的影响。模型结果显示，美洛昔康方案每例 CM 病例每年平均净经济效益为 42 欧元。在不使用美洛昔康治疗的情况下，奶牛的产奶回报更高，分娩成本更低，治疗成本也更低。然而，这些好处都没有抵消与较低的采食量、较少的配种次数和较低的淘汰率相关的节省。美洛昔康治疗有利于净经济效益，这是因为美洛昔康方案中的奶牛繁殖性能更好，其产犊到受孕间隔更短（132 天对 143 天），间情期更短（405 天对 416 天），每受孕配种次数更少（2.9 次对 3.7 次），而在不使用美洛昔康治疗的情况下，奶牛的受孕率更低。这导致泌乳期缩短，因此泌乳期的产奶量（每泌乳期 8441 公斤对 8517 公斤）较低，而美洛昔康组的饲料成本也较低。较低的淘汰率（12%对 25%）导致美洛昔康治疗方案的更换成本更低。在敏感性分析中评估的所有方案都支持美洛昔康治疗方案优于不使用美洛昔康。本研究表明，在产奶期前 120 天内使用美洛昔康作为轻度至中度 CM 的辅助治疗，可以提高受孕率，并带来积极的经济效益。在广泛的技术和经济投入下，这一推断仍然成立，这表明在许多生产系统中使用美洛昔康可能具有成本效益。
