Required steps towards antibiotic reduction on Flemish dairy farms- Part 1: prevention and selective dry cow therapy

Also in Belgium, the agricultural sector has been under pressure for quite a while regarding the ex-cessive and insufficiently substantiated use of antibiotics and the link with the development of acquired antibiotic resistance, also in human pathogens. Since 2012, many efforts have been taken by several animal sectors to restrict the excessive use and misuse of antibiotics through recommendations, sensi-bilization, non-statutory measurements and through legislation. Also in the dairy sector, the search towards more prudent use of these important products is on-going, aiming at the rational use of antibiotics as well as a substantial reduction of its use. On an average Flemish dairy farm, sixty to seventy percent of the antibiotic consumption is used to manage udder health. Therefore, improving udder health through optimized management and imple-mentation of prevention measures will immediately lead to a decrease in antibiotic use. A tool to score mastitis management objectively at the herd level is available (www.u-scan.eu), allowing to achieve improved mastitis management and udder health. In addition to a better prevention via an improved mastitis management, selective dry cow treatment is, besides selective treatment of clinical mastitis, an essential step towards a targeted reduction in antibiotic use. Within the concept of selective dry cow treatment, specific parameters (i.e. bacteriological culture, clinical mastitis history, cell count data) are used to identify cows (most likely) having an intramammary infection at dry-off. Only these animals should receive long-acting antibiotics. The non-infected cows are dried off without antibiotics, yet are protected against the development of new intramammary infections with teat sealants, implying a decrease in defined daily doses without or with very few negative long-term effects on udder health and milk production. A prerequisite for implementing selective dry cow treatment is that mastitis ma-nagement on the farm is optimal. In Scandinavian countries and the Netherlands, selective dry cow tre-atment has been the norm for years and it has recently been introduced on Flemish dairy farms. Since the new European Regulation (2019/6) came into effect on the 28th of January 2022, it, theoretically speaking, became the norm. Experiences from the above mentioned countries can help to better unroll this concept in Belgium.