H3S—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, August 2,19 M
York Holstein Field Day hears vet
Dairymen
BY JOYCE BUPP
Staff Correspondent
BAIR Area dairymen
have a drug problem. The
abuse doesn’t center around
heroin, marijuana, uppers,
downers or speed. Instead it
lies in bottles, boluses and
syringes of penicillin,
streptomycin, tetracycline,
or a whole gamut of similar
substances commonly found
on dairy farms across the
nation.
That’s the word from
Dillsburg veterinarian Dr.
Robert Owens, whose
message at Tuesday’s York
County Holstein
Association’s field day
centered on misuse of bovine
antibiotics. Owens allowed
that bis audience of over two
hundred Holstein en
thusiasts at the 4-H Center
might not be too happy with
what he was about to tell
them.
Tm not real nuts about
anybody being able to buy
drugs off the trucks that
crane around to the farms,”
the vet asserted. “I want
drugs used right. Every day
I see people misusing an
tibiotics. If they’re going to
be used, they’re worth using
right-or not at all.”
Bottom line of this drug
situation is that
veterinarians are having to
Use increasingly stronger
drugs to clean up dairy herd
diseases. As might be ex
pected, the number one
problem lies with that
perennial bane of every
dairy cow: mastitis.
The new disc assay an
tibiotic test that went into
effect on July 1 is a super
sensitive detective in the
crackdown against drug
residue m farm milk ship
ment. A bacillus organism
used in the antibiotic
culturing is so sensitive that
it can detect one cubic
centimeter (cc) of pencillm
in 15,000 gallons of milk.
“If you’re treating a
quarter, and only throwing
away the milk for that
quarter instead of the cow’s
total output, believe me
you’re gonna get burned,”
warned the large animal
practitioner.
Contrary to some beliefs,
the method of administering
an antibiotic has no coun
tering effect on the with
drawal tune for dumping
treated milk. Regardless of
the treatment site, whether
through mouth, vein, hip,
uterus or mammary system,
the drug is absorbed into the
bloodstream and carried to
every part of the body A hip
injection of antibiotics will
get into the milk just as
quickly as a direct infusion
into a quarter.
Drug misuse also results
from not maintaining what
Owens labeled “M.I C -
minimum inhibitory con
centration,” or the proper
level of a drug in an animal’s
system for the complete
period of time that it takes to
kill all the bacteria
You can’t stick’ an
animal once and have it
work,” he emphasized It
should be used at least three
days, or 24 to 48 hours after
fever levels drop And that’s
anile ”
have
a drug
tibiotics for this con
centration level results in
the survival of a few drug
resistant bacteria, which
will multiply and cause a
reoccurrence. Then the first
antibiotic is no longer ef
fective and a stronger one
will be needed.
Withdrawal time is also
different on the vaned
drugs, based on metabolic
absorption by the liver or the
rate of excretion by the
kidneys. Penicillin, for in
stance, spreads throughout
the bloodstream within a
half-hour after an in
tramuscular injection and
lasts for a full 24 hours, thus
making only one treatment
per day necessary.
Streptomycin, while also
through the system within a
half-hour, only remains at
killing levels for up to 12
hours, requiring twice-daily
use. For this reason, a
popular blend of penicillin
and streptomycin is, in
Owen’s opinion, “one of the
poorest treatments in the
market,” because the period
of concentration at killing
levels is not compatible.
Separate injections of the
two would be much
preferable, he advised.
Then there’s another
frequently used antibiotic,
tetracycline, which lasts
only for six hours and must
be used four tunes daily, and
ampicillin, good for eight
hours and needed three
tunes a day.
Dumping of milk must be
based on the number of
hours since the last treat
ment was given, not the
number of milkings, a
crucial point in herds being
milked three tunes daily.
And, even though the actual
milking tune may be slightly
past the final hour of with
drawal, some of the milk
accumulating in the cow’s
system was being produced
during the withdrawal
penod and it must be
dumped because some
residue will still be there.
Owens also shot holes
through what he calls the
“Doc, this cow just isn’t
coming m heat” syndrome.
About 90 percent of those
animals, he says, are ac
tually cycling regularly.
Dr. Robert Owens, Dillsburg area large animal
practitioner, tackled the issue of bovine drug
therapy as key speaker for Tuesday’s Holstein field
problem
“Part of the problem is
that cows seem to come m
heat during the coolest part
of the day - like 2 a.m. - when
very few dairymen are in the
bam,” he wryly noted.
Twice daily herd ob
servations of 20 minutes at
both dusk and dawn is
Owens’ key to catching
cycling individuals. Regular
adherence to dusk and dawn
observation should result in
a near 90-percent detection
level. Heat observation after
morning milking is the least
desirable time, smce only
about a 25-percent detection
level can be expected.
One useful tool for cat
ching cycling cows is the K
mar heat detector strip. The
vet warned, however, that it
must be used properly as a
detection aid, and not be
relied upon as a crutch
against poor reproductive
management.
Dr. Owens presentation
was the wrap-up of a day of
activities that included a
chicken barbeque luncheon
at the 4-H Center and cattle
judging and a herd visit at
Sunnybend Farm, Biesecker
Road, York, owned by Tom
and June Boyer.
The Boyer’s milk 35
registered Holstems with a
rolling herd average of over
19,000 pounds of milk and
almost 700 of fat, while
maintaining a BAA rating of
106.1 on type classification.
Over 80 percent of the herd is
homebred, with sires like
Valiant, Mars, Milestone,
Sexation and Kit Builder in
use. Sunnybend’s cropping
program is geared toward
cattle feeding, with the 130
acres in com, alfalfa and
mixed hay and a small
quantity of wheat for bed
ding straw.
Three winners were an
nounced in the highly
popular cattle judging event.
Junior winner was Steve
Feeser, R 6 Hanover, with
Geraldine Wolf of R 1 Ab
bottstown capturing the
women’s class award and
Wayne Mummert, R 1 East
Berlin, topping the men’s
division. Jed Beshore, R 1
New Cumberland, was of
ficial judge for the 2-yr.-old
and 4-yr.-old classes.
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