Department of Livestock Science, Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, Frick, Switzerland.
Department of Sustainable Agricultural Systems, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna, Austria; Department of Animal Science, Aarhus University, Tjele, Denmark.
Prev Vet Med. 2020 Jun;179:104970. doi: 10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.104970. Epub 2020 May 4.
Large quantities of antimicrobials are used in Swiss veal production. To develop strategies to reduce antimicrobial use, it is important to understand how stakeholders along the veal production chain perceive the current situation and to find the key issues that challenge them about calf health management and antimicrobial use. However, there has been insufficient research into the individual contexts of the supply chain actors, and the central themes that they perceive to enable or limit their actions remain largely unknown. The aim of this study is to investigate the perceptions of the current situation of the Swiss veal production system, in terms of calf health management and antimicrobial use held by industry stakeholders, i.e. dairy farmers, veal producers, traders, slaughterhouse managers, advisors and veterinarians. Qualitative interviews were conducted with 27 respondents and analyzed using content analysis. The results show that stakeholders are aware of the current need to minimize resistance development and the related risks for public health by reducing antimicrobial use. The main reason for high antimicrobial use was nominated as the practice of purchasing calves from many different dairy farms and bringing them together in large groups at a young age, which exposes them to a variety of pathogens that their still developing immune systems are not able to cope with. To prevent and combat infectious diseases which are a frequent consequence of this practice, antimicrobial group treatments are commonly administered, which significantly raises the total amount of antimicrobials used. Group level treatments with antimicrobials were associated directly with the large-scale veal farming system, which uses excess calves from specialized dairy farms, and which the respondents perceive to cause financial pressure and mutual dependencies among participants. In addition, disunity between actors was perceived as a further challenge to find strategies for the reduction of antimicrobial use. The respondents suggested downscaling the production system so that calves can be treated individually but conceded that the current system may be very difficult to change, so also suggested various improvement measures within the existing system. The results of this study provide a basis for further research to investigate possible interventions that could considerably reduce antimicrobial use in veal production.
瑞士小牛肉生产中使用了大量的抗菌药物。为了制定减少抗菌药物使用的策略，了解小牛肉生产链中的利益相关者如何看待当前的情况，找到他们在犊牛健康管理和抗菌药物使用方面面临的关键问题是很重要的。然而，对于供应链参与者的个别情况，以及他们认为能够促进或限制其行动的核心问题，研究还不够充分。本研究的目的是调查行业利益相关者（即奶牛场主、小牛肉生产者、贸易商、屠宰场经理、顾问和兽医）对瑞士小牛肉生产系统目前犊牛健康管理和抗菌药物使用情况的看法。对 27 名受访者进行了定性访谈，并采用内容分析法进行了分析。结果表明，利益相关者意识到当前需要通过减少抗菌药物的使用来尽量减少耐药性的发展及其对公共健康的相关风险。高抗菌药物使用的主要原因是从许多不同的奶牛场购买小牛并在年幼时将它们聚集在一起，这使它们暴露在许多其仍在发育的免疫系统无法应对的病原体中。为了预防和治疗这种做法经常导致的传染病，通常会进行抗菌药物群体治疗，这大大增加了抗菌药物的总用量。与大规模小牛肉养殖系统相关的是，群体水平的抗菌药物治疗与使用来自专门奶牛场的多余小牛有关，受访者认为这会造成参与者之间的经济压力和相互依赖。此外，利益相关者之间的不团结被认为是找到减少抗菌药物使用策略的另一个挑战。受访者建议缩小生产系统规模，以便可以对小牛进行个体治疗，但承认目前的系统可能很难改变，因此也建议在现有系统内采取各种改进措施。本研究的结果为进一步研究提供了基础，以调查可能会大大减少小牛肉生产中抗菌药物使用的干预措施。
