This document discusses reducing antibiotic usage on Dutch pig farms. It begins by explaining why antibiotic reduction is important due to increasing antibiotic resistance. The goal was to reduce antibiotic usage by 50% from 2008-2013. Several case studies are presented that demonstrate how farms reduced antibiotic usage through strategies like improving vaccination programs, using alternative treatments, improving herd health monitoring, and focusing on overall farm management improvements. The results showed significant reductions in antibiotic usage and improvements in pig health and productivity on farms that implemented these strategies.

1. 4TH MERIAL FORUM
HAVE WE GOT PCVD &
SWINE INFLUENZA UNDER
CONTROL?

2. Reduction ofHigher Health
antibiotics in the
Netherlands, field cases
Frans Dirven
Vet. Practice Lintjeshof
Rob Aerts DVM
Nederweert, The Netherlands
Lintjeshof
Netherlands
2
2

3. Agenda
• 1 introduction
• 2 reduction of antibiotics; why? how much?
• 3 reduction of antibiotics; how? results
• 4 moment of consideration
• 5 conclusions

4. 1 introduction;Lintjeshof practice
• 25 vets/16 specialized in Swine, 4 locations covering
the Netherlands, 2 locations in Germany (1 in Belgium)
• The service we offer:
– Vet expertise /consultancy
– Diagnostic lab and monitoring
– Pharmacy with product display

5. 5

6. 6

7. Lintjeshof practice
• approximately 25 % market share in NL
• swine ( 80 % ) • 14 vets
• cattle ( 8 % ) • 3 vets
• 1 vet
• poultry ( 7 % ) • 4 vets
• companion Animals (5 %)
• All Specialized
• 25 vets, 3 laboratory assistants
• 14 Secretarial staff
• MT (operational-,financial manager and
managing director)
• Iso-nen certified

8. Pharmacy, operation and management
Vet practice and lab
6/5/2012 lintjeshof 8
8

9. Vet. Pharma companies wholesalers
Licence traders Veterinary pharmacy Veterinary clinic+ pharmacy
Antihelmintics Farmvet
prescription
under
prescription
Farmer
9

10. Current situation
• Farms are becoming bigger (1000-2000 sows),
small breeding farms disappear
• Productivity is going up to 30 piglets / sow /
year
• Total piglet production is rising
• Producer is more dependant on export (large
units up to 5000 sows)
• Family farms, closed herds ( 300- 500 sows,
2500 – 5000 fatteners) rather independent

11. Data
• 900.000 sows
• 7 million piglets exported Germany!
• Production cost piglet 25kg: 49 euro
• Per sow highest production of meat (kg)/year
(followed by Denmark and France)
• Production cost of 1kg porc: 1,46 euro

12. Total of farms decreasing, total
animals pro farm increasing
12

13. Facts
• Strong focus on costs
• Continuous system (many movement of pigs)
• Higher health difficult to obtain (many diseases)
• SPF difficult to maintain (swine density)
• No support for “megafarms”
• High usage of antibiotics (political statement)
• Highly dependant on export!!! Health is most
important topic

14. Agenda
• 1 introduction
• 2 reduction of antibiotics; why? how much?
• 3 reduction of antibiotics; how?
• 4 moment of consideration
• 5 conclusions

15. 2 reduction of antibiotics; why?
how much?
• High usage of ab has become a political item
• Increasing resistance (MRSA,Klebsiella, E Coli)
• ESB-L issues…..
• Transfer of resistant bacteria/ genes
direct; poor hygiene
indirect; environment (soil,surface waters)
• vet held responsible for increase in usage…

16. Volkskrant
2007
6/5/2012 presentatie f.dirven lintjeshof 16
16

17. 17

18. Average daily doses per animal/year
18

19. Antibiotic-resistance

20. Prevalence of MRSA

21. Moment of consideration
• How much reduction? 2008-2013: 50%
• Separation between vet practice and pharmacy?
• Vet is gatekeeper for animal and human health
• Curative use only, preventive use prohibited?
• Separation of human/ animal ab
(cephalosporines, quinolones banned since 1jan2012)
(ab for human use only and vice versa)

22. Agenda
• 1 introduction
• 2 reduction of antibiotics; why? How much?
• 3 reduction of antibiotics; how? results
• 4 moment of consideration
• 5 conclusions
Lintjeshof, 30 maart 2011

23. reduction of antibiotics; how? results
• Introducing ddy
• Introducing vetcis (databank)
• Introducing SDA (vet drugs authority)
• Benchmark farmers and vets (penalties?)
• Separation vet pharmacy and practice (pervert)?
• Income of vet independent margin on drugs

28. vetcis

32. reduction of antibiotics; how? results
• Prudent use (dosage, days, diagnosis)
• Alternatives : MCFA’s, probiotics , immune
stimulating products, vitamines,
antioxydantia, mycotoxin binders
• Vaccines (circo, myco, prrs, flu, parvo….)
• Symptomatic therapies in case of acute illness
( nasa, metacam, paracetamol)
• Focus on higher health

33. Strategy to higher health
• Improvement veterinary strategy
• Improvement management at farmlevel
• Improvement feed strategy

34. Improvement veterinary strategy
No more “old school”:
• lots of emergency therapies
• farewell and entry medications
• vaccination at entry fattening unit because of
mistrust between breeder, fattener and trader
• Many combinations of ab
We are producing food, not only kg of meat

35. Improvement veterinary strategy
• Proper diagnosis!! Define the primary agent
• Vaccinate against primary diseases
(prrs, flu, circo, mhyo, parvo)
• Antibiotics just for secondary infections
(pasteurella, app, glässer….strep suis???)
• Painkillers in case of fever/ severe illness to increase
feed/water intake
• Blood monitoring for diagnostics and herd-health-
passport
• Improving of general farm management

36. 6/5/2012 lintjeshof 36
36

37. Improvement of veterinary strategy
Prevention by vaccination:
• New vaccins (mycoplasma, flu, prrs, circo, glasser etc)
combi vaccins
• Top down (young gilts, sows,piglet, fatteners)
• Decrease of antibiotics (kg) is the objective and
improvement of technical results
• Higher healthstatus (prrs neg piglets)
• Return on investment !!!(proper diagnosis)

38. Improvement of veterinary strategy
Painkillers
• Symptomatic, mostly viral infections
• Less anorexia (dg fatteners)
• Reducing fever (most sows abort due to fever)
• Total health at higher level
• Less secondary infections ( combination
management)
• If so, individual antibiotic use.
Lintjeshof, 30 maart 2011

39. Serological monitoring by spc

40. Fieldcases antibiotic reduction
Case 1:
• Closed herd (500 sows, 4000 fatteners)
• Problems fatteners: diarrhea, runts, high
mortality (5-6%), no lung problems
• Tiamutin used on regular basis
• Brachyspira-, salmonella-, pia+
• Bloodsampling and necropsy: high viral load pcv2
• Vaccination against pcv at 3 weeks of age

41. Results case 1
before vaccination transition all vaccinated animals
8 60,0
7
50,0
6
40,0
5
4 30,0
3
20,0
2
10,0
1
0 0,0
Jan - April 09 May - Aug 09 Sept - Dec 09 Jan - April 10 May - Aug 10 Sept - Nov 10
mortality % Average number of Daily Dosage per animal year

42. Fieldcases antibiotic reduction
Case 2
• Sow farm (expanding from 900-1800 sows)
• 30 piglets sow/year (weekly production)
• Positive on prrs and influenza
• Vaccination:
piglets: circo 3 wk, sows: prrs and influenza
• 2010 (august) reproductive problems
(abortions, fever, reduced feed intake, 3% mortality)
• No effect antibiotics, only pracetam (fever)
Lintjeshof, 30 maart 2011

43. Fieldcases antibiotic reduction
Case 2
• PCR fetus: parvovirus- (vaccinated), prrs-, circo-
• Bloodsamples: csf-
• Bloodsamples: influenza, prrs, app, circo
• Extra influenza vaccination started no effect

44. diagnostics case 2
Influenza no seroconversion
9 9
8 8
7 7
6 6
HI-waarde
HI-waarde
5 5
4 4
3 3
2 2
1 1
0 0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
buisnummer buisnummer

45. diagnostics case 2
Prrs no seroconversion
4,0 4,0
3,5 3,5
3,0 3,0
2,5 2,5
S/P ratio
S/P ratio
2,0 2,0
1,5 1,5
1,0 1,0
0,5 0,5
0,0 0,0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
buisnummer buisnummer

46. diagnostics case 2
App no seroconversion
2,2 2,2
2,0 2,0
1,8 1,8
1,6 1,6
1,4 1,4
S/P ratio
S/P ratio
1,2 1,2
1,0 1,0
0,8 0,8
0,6 0,6
0,4 0,4
0,2 0,2
0,0 0,0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
buisnummer buisnummer

47. diagnostics case 2
Circo IgM/IgG seroconversion
2,2 2,2
2,0 2,0
1,8 1,8
1,6 1,6
1,4 1,4
OD
OD
1,2 1,2
1,0 1,0
0,8 0,8
0,6 0,6
0,4 0,4
0,2 0,2
0,0 0,0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
buisnummer buisnummer

48. Results case 2
• After 6 weeks increase of problems
• No effect extra SIV vaccination or antibiotics
• Lab results:
herd vaccination circovac
after 2 weeks strong improvement (until today)
• Vaccination scheme:
gilts: 3 weeks and before first insemination
sows: at 10 weeks of gestation
piglets: 3 weeks of age

49. Fieldcases antibiotic reduction
Case 3
• The effect of the application of mono-lauric acid
with glycerol mono-laurate in weaned piglets on
the use of antimicrobials in sow herds.
• Effect against gram+ bacteria ( streptococcus,
staphylococcus)
• Product used for 6 months in nursery feed
• Effect on use of trimethoprim/sulfa, amoxicillin

50. Results case 3; 34 farm with la/gml
140
dagdosering zeugen voor
120
100
dagdosering zeugen na
80
60
40
20
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34

51. Results case 3; 37 farms without la/gml
250
dagdosering zeug 1e periode
200
dagdosering zeug 2e periode
150
100
50
0
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37

52. Results case 3
• Significant reduction in antibiotic use on farms
using LZ/GML
• De Snoeck1*, S., van der Wolf2 P.,, Swart2, W., Heiiman3, E., Ebbinge3, B.
• 1 Veterinary Practice Lintjeshof, Nederweert, The Netherlands
• 2 Animal Health Service, Deventer, The Netherlands
• 3 Daavision B.V., Oss, The Netherlands
Box and Whisker Plot
40
10
deltaDD
-20
-50
0 1
Lintjeshof, 30 maart 2011 laur
62 cases

53. Fieldcases antibiotic reduction
Case 4
• Breeding herd 800 sows , high health
• Piglets: seronegative (prrs, app, mhyo, pia)
monitoring every 4 months
• Vaccination:
sow: prrs, influenza, ery/parvo, app, e.coli
piglets: glässer, pcv2
• Problems in nursery (light coughing, low feedintake after
weaning, mortality 3%, high use of ab (tetracyclin, trim/sulf)
• Week 1+2 after weaning pracetam in feed

54. Results case 4
Product amount Period 1 Period 2
Doxycyclin 100% 1kg 2 2
Trim/sulfa 80/420 5kg 12 2
Ampicillin 100ml 204 114
Draxxin 50ml 23 18
Powerflox 100ml 30 12
Florkem 100ml 15 10
Oxytetracyclin 100% 5kg 17 0
ADD 46 7

55. Improvement of general farm
management
• Very important, not only health-management
also total farm-management
• Without good management every veterinary
therapy is useless
• Labour hours will be decreasing
(more hours to spent for other subjects such as fertility)
• Employees have a higher labour moral

56. Improvement of general farm
management
Structural changes in housing systems;
• continuous productionsystems vs
fixed week production system (poultry)
• no mixing up animals from different
origins
• animals of same age
• all in all out
• strictly 1 to 1
• multisite production

57. ADD fixed week production system
57

58. Improvement of general farm
management
• Stock density!! Many farms +10-20%
• SPF monitoring system (Denmark)
• Eradication of diseases (auj, prrs, mhyo, app)
• New farms start SPF

59. Agenda
• 1 introduction
• 2 reduction of antibiotics; why? how much?
• 3 reduction of antibiotics; how? results
• 4 moment of consideration
• 5 conclusions

60. 4 moment of consideration
• vetcis: reduction about 32 %
• Sda gives ddy (sows+piglets 20, fatteners 13)
• No more preventive medication (poor management)
• Discussion quinolones, cephalosporines (01-01-2012)
• No antibiotic mixing at feedmill (01-09-2011)
• Political discussion about split (vetclinic/pharmacy)
• Veterinarian most involved person at farm
(farmspecific healthplan, welfare, control zoonotic diseases and art 1 diseases)
1 to 1 contract with farmer.
• Income; margin drugs? and hourly fee ? Contract ?
Sector? Ministry ?

61. tete
ten

62. 62

63. Challenge
• New decrease 20% (with swine sector)
• Veterinarian becomes “health” director at farmlevel
(1 on 1 relation) with help from government to act
independant
• System higher health and pig pass
• Sustainable swine production
• More alternatives (vaccines, feed additives,
antioxydantia, herbs, toxin binders...........)
• Partner for financial returns
Lintjeshof, 30 maart 2011

64. Another challenge:
Big Challenge
TEAM LINTJESHOF

65. Threats?
• Therapeutic bandwidth
• Are certain problems without antibiotics kept under
control (e.g. strep. suis)
• Unable to go to higher health (density of farms and
animals)
• Cost price meat in W. Europe? International
competition
• Is consumer willing to pay for better and safer meat ?
• Will the vet be sufficiently paid for advice to keep his
quality and know how
Lintjeshof, 30 maart 2011

66. Agenda
• 1 introduction
• 2 reduction of antibiotics; why? how much?
• 3 reduction of antibiotics; how? results
• 4 moment of consideration
• 5 conclusions

67. Conclusions
• Profitability in swine production strongly influenced by
farm health status
• Food producers (decrease of antibiotics)
• Reduction of ab strongly depending on farm health
status
• End 2012 50% ab reduction (32% is obtained)
• Alternatives for antibiotics………….
• Strong improvement general management and sector
structure
• In the end a higher return on investment at farmlevel
• Swineproducers need to improve their competitiveness

68. Thank you for your attention