At Dairy Day 2019, Irish Farmers Journal vet Tommy Heffernan will be on hand to discuss some of the big issues facing dairy farmers. Dairy farmers use antibiotics to treat mastitis infections, lameness and other bacterial infections. The success rate of treating mastitis in milking cows is poor. In the dry period the success rate is better, but there is a global movement to reduce the volume of antibiotics used in blanket dry cow therapy.
Some farmers have started using selective dry cow therapy, which means only using antibiotics on cows that have a known infection. Many will now just use a teat sealer. Tommy will discuss the challenges of teat sealing, handling cows and the concept of reducing antibiotic usage on dairy farms.
Every week in the Irish Farmers Journal, Tommy Heffernan discusses animal health challenges on livestock farms. Recently, Tommy and Department of Agriculture teamed up to launch One Health – a campaign aimed to inform, debate, demonstrate and understand antimicrobial resistance. Jack Kennedy sat down with Tommy Heffernan to review what’s happening and why it is important.
What is One Health about?
The One Health concept is based on the fact that people and animals share the same environment, so human health, animal health and environmental health are all interdependent. One of the biggest challenges to One Health is antimicrobial resistance.
What does resistance mean?
You may have recently been treated with an antibiotic, or treated a sick animal on your farm with an antibiotic. What if that antibiotic, and the next one chosen by your doctor or vet, failed to work and the infection got more serious? We all need antibiotics to work, but due to the development of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), this is not always guaranteed. Essentially, when we talk about resistance, we’re talking about cases where bacteria are no longer killed by antibiotics. So AMR means that an antibiotic medicine no longer cures the disease, either in people or in animals.
Are the same antibiotics used to treat animals as humans?
Yes, the antibiotics that are used to treat bacterial diseases in animals are also used to cure diseases in people. As a result of humans and animals sharing the same environment, diseases are also shared and spread between us. The antibiotics that are used to treat bacterial diseases in animals are also used to cure diseases in people.
So, if antibiotics stop working, what does that mean for families and communities?
Simple infections such as sore throats and skin infections have the potential to kill, and routine surgeries and key treatments such as chemotherapy become high-risk.
If food is infected with bacteria can consumers get sick?
Bacterial infections can destroy our farming businesses, and severely affect food production and food supplies. Food contaminated with resistant bacteria can endanger people and our whole supply chain. We are all in this together – our farm animals, farmers and the public.
What is your One Health campaign about?
This campaign is about helping people to understand why all of us must be involved in slowing down the development and spread of antibiotic resistance by reducing the amount of antibiotics we use. We all have a role to play in keeping antibiotics working for future generations. The solution to the One Health challenge is for us all to work together.
At Dairy Day 2019, Irish Farmers Journal vet Tommy Heffernan will be on hand to discuss some of the big issues facing dairy farmers. Dairy farmers use antibiotics to treat mastitis infections, lameness and other bacterial infections. The success rate of treating mastitis in milking cows is poor. In the dry period the success rate is better, but there is a global movement to reduce the volume of antibiotics used in blanket dry cow therapy.
Some farmers have started using selective dry cow therapy, which means only using antibiotics on cows that have a known infection. Many will now just use a teat sealer. Tommy will discuss the challenges of teat sealing, handling cows and the concept of reducing antibiotic usage on dairy farms.
Every week in the Irish Farmers Journal, Tommy Heffernan discusses animal health challenges on livestock farms. Recently, Tommy and Department of Agriculture teamed up to launch One Health – a campaign aimed to inform, debate, demonstrate and understand antimicrobial resistance. Jack Kennedy sat down with Tommy Heffernan to review what’s happening and why it is important.
What is One Health about?
The One Health concept is based on the fact that people and animals share the same environment, so human health, animal health and environmental health are all interdependent. One of the biggest challenges to One Health is antimicrobial resistance.
What does resistance mean?
You may have recently been treated with an antibiotic, or treated a sick animal on your farm with an antibiotic. What if that antibiotic, and the next one chosen by your doctor or vet, failed to work and the infection got more serious? We all need antibiotics to work, but due to the development of Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR), this is not always guaranteed. Essentially, when we talk about resistance, we’re talking about cases where bacteria are no longer killed by antibiotics. So AMR means that an antibiotic medicine no longer cures the disease, either in people or in animals.
Are the same antibiotics used to treat animals as humans?
Yes, the antibiotics that are used to treat bacterial diseases in animals are also used to cure diseases in people. As a result of humans and animals sharing the same environment, diseases are also shared and spread between us. The antibiotics that are used to treat bacterial diseases in animals are also used to cure diseases in people.
So, if antibiotics stop working, what does that mean for families and communities?
Simple infections such as sore throats and skin infections have the potential to kill, and routine surgeries and key treatments such as chemotherapy become high-risk.
If food is infected with bacteria can consumers get sick?
Bacterial infections can destroy our farming businesses, and severely affect food production and food supplies. Food contaminated with resistant bacteria can endanger people and our whole supply chain. We are all in this together – our farm animals, farmers and the public.
What is your One Health campaign about?
This campaign is about helping people to understand why all of us must be involved in slowing down the development and spread of antibiotic resistance by reducing the amount of antibiotics we use. We all have a role to play in keeping antibiotics working for future generations. The solution to the One Health challenge is for us all to work together.
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