Making the most of diagnostics and vaccines

In this video, Richard Ryan emphasises the use of diagnostics for mastitis, vaccination for respiratory disease and bronchoalveolar lavage for lungworm to improve responsible antimicrobial use.

Small changes can add up to big changes: if you educate clients, work with them and teach them that first-line antibiotics come first and second-line antibiotics come second, then you will be much more successful in reducing overall antibiotic use.

The use of diagnostics has a really important role to play in reducing antibiotic use. For example, the image below shows the findings of the brochoalveolar lavage from a lungworm case:

Live lungworm larvae were found in 3 out of 6 cows checked, so this provided evidence that an oral levamisole product could be used and the cattle improved. Without this use of diagnostics, antibiotics could have been used here irresponsibly.

Use the comments section to discuss how diagnostics and vaccination have helped in your practice. What other improvements can you think of for their use?