Dr. Chandrakiran Sant, Dairy Advisor, Livestock Management Centre, Mumbai, talks about combating antimicrobial resistance in dairy.
Antimicrobial resistance is one where the bacteria becomes resistant to the antibiotics used in animals for curing the infection. This anti-drug resistance can be developed in their body or transmitted to humans by way of milk or meat, soil, environment, or air and spread to the general public. Combating antibacterial resistance is a global issue. The affected patient develops drug resistance, and when he is treated with the same antibiotic, it does not have any impact on them. He does not get better but gets worse. This antimicrobial resistance is because of the rampant usage of antibiotics in animals, humans and is causing a global havoc.
Combating antimicrobial resistance is a major issue because of the huge number of animals and livestock. In most of the cases, the gut health is compromised due to improper nutrition and management which result in poor growth, higher morbidity rate, and mortality. To prevent such a situation, antibiotics are widely used.
India is the highest milk producing country in the world. But we have less volume of milk per animal compared to other countries. The cause for low productivity is poor farm management and practices. Before 2000, most of the farmers were illiterate, not knowing basic scientific knowledge and were following their forefathers’ practices. Today, people are over educated using Google, YouTube etc. and get a lot of information. However, they are unable to identify the right or wrong information being advanced does not provide any basics of scientific practices ending in adapting unhealthy practices. Poor farm management practices are followed leading to high bacterial load due to animals living in unhygienic conditions. Thus, bacteria enter the animals’ intestine, which can be treated only by using higher antibiotics. As a result, the financial burden for dairy farmers is increasing. The most common animal disease is Mastitis which has to be treated with higher antibiotics. The farmer does not follow the withdrawal period resulting in antibiotic residue in animal. The effect of this is seen in humans who get residues of antibiotics in milk and meat consumed by them and they develop drug resistance. About 4 million humans have died due to resistance to bacteria. The losses due to diseases and treatment is very high. Even if the disease is cured, the milk yield goes down. The farmers fail to understand this, and they do treatment but never adopt preventive practices
Many regulations have been imposed to stop the use of antibiotics by FSSAI & FDA in India. The usage of antibiotics has been put under official surveillance. When the gut health of the animal is not good, it cannot have proper digestion and assimilation of nutrients and the health condition worsens. We see many other diseases apart from Mastitis and to prevent them we have to curb the usage of antibiotics and go for Preventing the same by using probiotics, prebiotics using nutritional supplements. Probiotics are gaining popularity now. In case of poultry, probiotics are used to improve gut health and digestion. They act as alternatives to antibiotics, work as growth promoter, control enteric pathogens causing infection in the body, and also used as microbial feed supplements. Thus digestion improves, acts as an immune stimulant and improves overall health.
Many other alternatives are in the research and development stage such as work on Nanoparticles. We are waiting for the results as to how effective they are in curbing the disease loads. Few enzymes are used in poultry. This enzyme supplementation helps in more meat per animal, reduction in cost of treatment and mortality rate. They act as natural agents, preventing side effects of antibiotics. We have immune stimulant substances that stimulate the immune systems to improve the immunity and resistance by activating neutrophils. We have antimicrobial peptides, cytokinesis has a good ability to conserve the cells. Antibacterial peptides with varied structural, functional diversity have remarkable antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties. I have observed that mastitis is the most major cause of loss in India. It occurs due to lack of immunity.
Only balanced feeding can improve immunity of the animals.. The proper combination of vital nutrients apart from green grass, dry grass, concentrates, and mineral mixture should be fed. Mineral mixture is the only common thing which can help to prevent occurrence of mastitis. Selenium and Vitamin E are antioxidant are important for developing immunity in the body. Selenium is required since it is able to cross the placental barrier being intercellular whereas Vit.E is unable to being intracellular.
Many conditions are associated with uterus viz. Prolapse, Calf Mortality, Metritis (leading to Mastits) and abortion as Uterus does not have immunity due to lack of adequate quantities of Selenium in Mineral Mixture. Ideally to have better immunity the Mineral Mixture must have at least 100 mg of ‘Elemental ‘ Selenium and 250 international units of Vitamin E. When we buy mineral mixture in India it mentions the contents as ’Nutritional value’ but it should denote the actual Elemental level used in the Mineral Mixture.
Many other treatments such as ozone therapy or waves therapy are there but they are expensive and time consuming. We currently have the ABCD concept of animal disease treatment. A for antibiotics to treat, B for B Complex to support the treatment, C for cortical or steroidal therapy to bring down the inflammation and swelling in any part of the body, and D for dextrose, the last resort to give natural energy to the animal. It would be ideal to focus on Preventive health management : not on treatment which is expensive. That means we have to focus on better nutrition management and gut health which will help in reducing disease outbreaks, reducing dependency on antibiotics. Only when we follow all these, can we achieve curbing the Mastitis and other diseases.
What role do antibiotics play in dairy production, and how can their use be minimized to reduce antimicrobial resistance?
The role of antibiotics is to remove the infection which comes in the animal because of lack of immunity. A balanced nutrition is helpful in reducing the use of antibiotics. The younger generation these days do not look healthy but are obese as they eat junk food that they like and not healthy food. So curbing the use of antibiotic proper balanced diet is the only solution to reduce antimicrobial resistance.
Are there alternative treatments or preventive measures being explored to reduce the reliance of antibiotics in dairy farming?
Homeopathic and Ayurveda are also being used, but the proper knowledge of medicines and their usage is not widely known hence the results are not very encouraging. The basic idea of stopping antibiotics is to have good immunity within the body which can be achieved by means of proper balanced diet with full of nutrients. This is the most natural and ideal way to stop the usage of antibiotics.
What are the challenges faced by dairy farmers in adapting practices to reduce antimicrobial resistance?
In case of mastitis which is found all over India, the feeding patterns are different for farmer to farmer. The common ingredient is the mineral mixture, and when a wrong mineral mixture is given or not at all given by the farmers, it results in lack of development of immunity in animals. Farmersshould use mineral mixture have detailed of elemental values of each component written on it and not the nutritional value. Farmer has to find out the best among the lot, that Vitamin E of 250 iu, (international unit) and Selenium of minimum 100 gm are included. Most of the companies do not include more than 40 mg Selenium since they are expensive, and when farmer use this it does not work well. Farmer should avoid using any product where nothing is written as I have seen in many cases only the content being mentioned and not the values. The farmers should not use them. What they will ultimately do is use more of the product, get less effect, and spend more. Since nothing is written on the cover, we cannot challenge the company also. This is the biggest challenge.
Dr. Chandrakiran Sant
Dairy Advisor
Livestock Management Centre
Pune, Maharashtra.
Mob : (+91) 9860600133
E-Mail: cnsant@gmail.com
Antimicrobial resistance is one where the bacteria becomes resistant to the antibiotics used in animals for curing the infection. This anti-drug resistance can be developed in their body or transmitted to humans by way of milk or meat, soil, environment, or air and spread to the general public. Combating antibacterial resistance is a global issue. The affected patient develops drug resistance, and when he is treated with the same antibiotic, it does not have any impact on them. He does not get better but gets worse. This antimicrobial resistance is because of the rampant usage of antibiotics in animals, humans and is causing a global havoc.
Combating antimicrobial resistance is a major issue because of the huge number of animals and livestock. In most of the cases, the gut health is compromised due to improper nutrition and management which result in poor growth, higher morbidity rate, and mortality. To prevent such a situation, antibiotics are widely used.
India is the highest milk producing country in the world. But we have less volume of milk per animal compared to other countries. The cause for low productivity is poor farm management and practices. Before 2000, most of the farmers were illiterate, not knowing basic scientific knowledge and were following their forefathers’ practices. Today, people are over educated using Google, YouTube etc. and get a lot of information. However, they are unable to identify the right or wrong information being advanced does not provide any basics of scientific practices ending in adapting unhealthy practices. Poor farm management practices are followed leading to high bacterial load due to animals living in unhygienic conditions. Thus, bacteria enter the animals’ intestine, which can be treated only by using higher antibiotics. As a result, the financial burden for dairy farmers is increasing. The most common animal disease is Mastitis which has to be treated with higher antibiotics. The farmer does not follow the withdrawal period resulting in antibiotic residue in animal. The effect of this is seen in humans who get residues of antibiotics in milk and meat consumed by them and they develop drug resistance. About 4 million humans have died due to resistance to bacteria. The losses due to diseases and treatment is very high. Even if the disease is cured, the milk yield goes down. The farmers fail to understand this, and they do treatment but never adopt preventive practices
Many regulations have been imposed to stop the use of antibiotics by FSSAI & FDA in India. The usage of antibiotics has been put under official surveillance. When the gut health of the animal is not good, it cannot have proper digestion and assimilation of nutrients and the health condition worsens. We see many other diseases apart from Mastitis and to prevent them we have to curb the usage of antibiotics and go for Preventing the same by using probiotics, prebiotics using nutritional supplements. Probiotics are gaining popularity now. In case of poultry, probiotics are used to improve gut health and digestion. They act as alternatives to antibiotics, work as growth promoter, control enteric pathogens causing infection in the body, and also used as microbial feed supplements. Thus digestion improves, acts as an immune stimulant and improves overall health.
Many other alternatives are in the research and development stage such as work on Nanoparticles. We are waiting for the results as to how effective they are in curbing the disease loads. Few enzymes are used in poultry. This enzyme supplementation helps in more meat per animal, reduction in cost of treatment and mortality rate. They act as natural agents, preventing side effects of antibiotics. We have immune stimulant substances that stimulate the immune systems to improve the immunity and resistance by activating neutrophils. We have antimicrobial peptides, cytokinesis has a good ability to conserve the cells. Antibacterial peptides with varied structural, functional diversity have remarkable antimicrobial and immunomodulatory properties. I have observed that mastitis is the most major cause of loss in India. It occurs due to lack of immunity.
Only balanced feeding can improve immunity of the animals.. The proper combination of vital nutrients apart from green grass, dry grass, concentrates, and mineral mixture should be fed. Mineral mixture is the only common thing which can help to prevent occurrence of mastitis. Selenium and Vitamin E are antioxidant are important for developing immunity in the body. Selenium is required since it is able to cross the placental barrier being intercellular whereas Vit.E is unable to being intracellular.
Many conditions are associated with uterus viz. Prolapse, Calf Mortality, Metritis (leading to Mastits) and abortion as Uterus does not have immunity due to lack of adequate quantities of Selenium in Mineral Mixture. Ideally to have better immunity the Mineral Mixture must have at least 100 mg of ‘Elemental ‘ Selenium and 250 international units of Vitamin E. When we buy mineral mixture in India it mentions the contents as ’Nutritional value’ but it should denote the actual Elemental level used in the Mineral Mixture.
Many other treatments such as ozone therapy or waves therapy are there but they are expensive and time consuming. We currently have the ABCD concept of animal disease treatment. A for antibiotics to treat, B for B Complex to support the treatment, C for cortical or steroidal therapy to bring down the inflammation and swelling in any part of the body, and D for dextrose, the last resort to give natural energy to the animal. It would be ideal to focus on Preventive health management : not on treatment which is expensive. That means we have to focus on better nutrition management and gut health which will help in reducing disease outbreaks, reducing dependency on antibiotics. Only when we follow all these, can we achieve curbing the Mastitis and other diseases.
What role do antibiotics play in dairy production, and how can their use be minimized to reduce antimicrobial resistance?
The role of antibiotics is to remove the infection which comes in the animal because of lack of immunity. A balanced nutrition is helpful in reducing the use of antibiotics. The younger generation these days do not look healthy but are obese as they eat junk food that they like and not healthy food. So curbing the use of antibiotic proper balanced diet is the only solution to reduce antimicrobial resistance.
Are there alternative treatments or preventive measures being explored to reduce the reliance of antibiotics in dairy farming?
Homeopathic and Ayurveda are also being used, but the proper knowledge of medicines and their usage is not widely known hence the results are not very encouraging. The basic idea of stopping antibiotics is to have good immunity within the body which can be achieved by means of proper balanced diet with full of nutrients. This is the most natural and ideal way to stop the usage of antibiotics.
What are the challenges faced by dairy farmers in adapting practices to reduce antimicrobial resistance?
In case of mastitis which is found all over India, the feeding patterns are different for farmer to farmer. The common ingredient is the mineral mixture, and when a wrong mineral mixture is given or not at all given by the farmers, it results in lack of development of immunity in animals. Farmers
Dr. Chandrakiran Sant
Dairy Advisor
Livestock Management Centre
Pune, Maharashtra.
Mob : (+91) 9860600133
E-Mail: cnsant@gmail.com