Objective:

The overall objective of the project is to by December 2020 develop, evaluate and implement on several farms a veterinary medicine recording and benchmarking system at farm and individual animal level integrated with quality assurance. Risk assessments related to two areas where antibiotic use is common will be developed, complete with step through decision support tools suitable for both farmer and veterinary practitioner with the impact of implementation quantified.

The outcome of the project will be a ready to implement system, with quantifiable financial and animal health benefits that would enable NI agriculture to respond to concerns over antibiotics use in food producing animals.

Impact of the system if then rolled out to NI

• Reduce incidence of animal ill health leading to less antibiotic use delivered through a better understanding of antibiotic use and development of strategies to more strategically use antibiotics in conjunction with health plans and
• Increased marketability in local and international markets. Use of antibiotics in production of food for human consumption is of growing concern. Having a robust system in place, particularly considering potential Brexit impacts enables NI to monitor/review and provide assurance of responsible antibiotic use. A must have to remain competitive and deliver on UK and EU antibiotic use

Enhance produce confidence. By conveying the fact that at an NI level we robustly monitor antibiotic use at farm and animal level, producer confidence can be built in the supply chain helping drive the consumption of locally produced food

Detailed Objectives:

1. Develop prototype system to capture and monitor antibiotic use at farm level for potential integration into livestock assurance schemes
2. Design, after reviewing international practices and stakeholder discussion, a practical veterinary medicine benchmarking system for dairy, beef and sheep
3. Deploy, test and refine benchmarking system with several commercial farms and veterinary practices.
4. Design and test potential smart systems to capture antibiotic and vaccine use at an animal level with minimal producer input
5. Develop, implement and review the impact of risk assessments and decision support tools related to dry cow therapy and calf rearing on pilot livestock farms. Quantify the impact in terms of antibiotic use, animal health and financial
6. Develop a user-friendly decision support/risk assessment package to target the two specific case study areas that could be rolled out within the supply chain

Partners:

AgriSearch, Agri-Food & Biosciences Institute, Vet Farm Systems Ltd, Animal Health and Welfare Northern Ireland, Northern Ireland Beef and Lamb Farm Quality Assurance Scheme

Number of farms:

multiple (exact numbers to be confirmed)

Website:
http://www.agrisearch.org/dairy/ongoing-dairy/animal-health-and-welfare-dairy/433-stamp

Coordinator:
Jason Rankin [email protected]

Funding organisations:
Department of Agriculture Environment and Rural Affairs for Northern Ireland (via the Research Challenge Fund), AgriSearch (The Northern Ireland Agricultural Research and Development Council)