Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Grønnegårdsvej 8, 1870 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
Prev Vet Med. 2020 Aug;181:104487. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2018.06.008. Epub 2018 Jun 22.
The use of antimicrobials in livestock constitutes an increasing global concern, and many countries pursue approaches to reduce the amount used, particularly in the pig production industry. The EU Commission has decided, due to environmental concerns, to phase out use of zinc oxide in pigs by 2022. This poses an additional challenge to efforts to reduce antimicrobial use (AMU) in European pig production. The pig production sector needs further information about how to comply with official AMU requirements without losing competitiveness. The most efficient approaches are likely to involve a combination of multiple factors. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore multidimensional associations between biosecurity, productivity, vaccination and AMU. A cross sectional study was conducted using data from 160 Danish sow herds in 2014-2015. Biosecurity data were collected through computer-assisted telephone interviews using a pre-developed questionnaire (Biocheck.UGent®) supplemented with additional country-specific questions and translated into Danish. Herd-specific data, consisting of antimicrobial prescriptions, purchase of vaccines against five endemic infections, herd health status and one productivity measure (i.e. number of weaned piglets per sow per year) were extracted from various databases. Factor analysis was conducted on a subset of the data from 152 herds with sufficiently complete data. The identified factors were explained by evaluating data from herds with extreme loadings on the respective factor. The results were further discussed based on plots combining herd factor loadings on two factors at a time. Four factors were selected based on the break-point in the scree-plot. Factor 1 included herd type, herd size, and age of farm buildings. Factor 2 covered general biosecurity, including several internal and external biosecurity measures. Factor 3 represented preventive measures implying specific focus on avoiding introduction of ASF by foreign employees. Lastly, Factor 4 covered vaccination status, specifically regarding vaccination against Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae and Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome virus. These factors were used to group the 152 sow herds into herd typologies. Feasible strategies aimed at improving health by reducing AMU without hampering animal welfare were identified and discussed for each typology. AMU and productivity correlated only weakly with other variables. This is probably due to limited variability in both these variables in study herds, which might be attributed to official restrictions on AMU, and a general high level of health and biosecurity in Danish sow herds.
在畜牧业中使用抗生素引起了全球性的关注，许多国家都在采取措施减少抗生素的使用量，尤其是在养猪业。由于环境方面的担忧，欧盟委员会决定到 2022 年逐步淘汰氧化锌在猪中的应用。这对欧洲养猪业减少抗生素使用量的努力提出了额外的挑战。养猪业需要更多的信息来了解如何在不丧失竞争力的情况下遵守官方的抗生素使用要求。最有效的方法可能涉及多种因素的结合。因此，本研究的目的是探讨生物安全、生产力、疫苗接种和抗生素使用之间的多维关联。本研究采用 2014-2015 年丹麦 160 个母猪场的数据进行了横断面研究。通过使用预先开发的问卷（Biocheck.UGent®）进行计算机辅助电话访谈收集生物安全数据，并补充了一些特定国家的问题，并翻译成丹麦语。从各种数据库中提取了与每个农场相关的抗生素处方、五种地方性感染疫苗的购买情况、农场健康状况和一个生产力指标（即每头母猪每年断奶仔猪数）的数据。对 152 个数据完整度足够的农场子集进行了因子分析。通过评估在各自因子上负荷较大的农场的数据，对识别出的因子进行了解释。根据同时结合两个因子的农场因子负荷图，进一步讨论了结果。根据碎石图中的断点选择了四个因子。因子 1 包括农场类型、农场规模和农场建筑的年龄。因子 2 涵盖了一般生物安全措施，包括内部和外部的生物安全措施。因子 3 代表了预防措施，特别是通过外国员工避免引入 ASF。最后，因子 4 涵盖了疫苗接种情况，特别是针对猪支原体肺炎和猪繁殖与呼吸综合征病毒的疫苗接种。这些因子用于将 152 个母猪场分为不同的农场类型。为每个类型确定了在不影响动物福利的情况下通过减少抗生素使用来改善健康的可行策略，并进行了讨论。抗生素使用量和生产力与其他变量的相关性较弱。这可能是由于研究农场中这两个变量的变异性有限，这可能归因于对抗生素使用的官方限制，以及丹麦母猪场普遍较高的健康和生物安全水平。
