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If we focus on data on the modern Caucasian tur, herds of cattle can be more than 100 heads. But on modern farms today they often contain several thousand dairy cows or fattening bulls. This is especially noticeable if you watch videos from the “meat” states of America, where there is no land visible in the pens for cattle. With such overcrowding, natural mechanisms for regulating the abundance begin to operate. Pathogenic bacteria actively multiply. Antibiotics for cattle help prevent outbreaks on such large farms.
Areas of application of antibiotics for cattle
There are several reasons why antibiotics are widely used in animal husbandry:
- prevention of epizootic development;
- preventing the development of intestinal infections;
- as an aid in secondary infections;
- growth stimulation;
- building muscle mass.
Antibiotics used today in calves for rapid growth are already fading into the background. It is more efficient and cheaper to use drugs that speed up the metabolism.
Feed antibiotics for cattle
The mechanism of action of antibiotics used for fattening cattle is to normalize the bacterial composition of the intestine. They inhibit toxin-forming bacteria that compete with normal physiological microflora. As a result, metabolism is normalized, immunity is strengthened, digestibility of feed is increased. All this contributes to the growth and development of young animals and increase productivity in adult cattle.
Decreased productivity can be caused by “stall fatigue” if cattle are kept indoors without grazing. With a large livestock, such a room becomes contaminated with waste products very quickly, and it is not possible to carry out frequent disinfection. Because of this, pathogenic microorganisms multiply in the barn. Antibiotics do not stop their reproduction, but protect the animal from the penetration of bacteria into the intestines.
The thoughtless use of feed antibiotics will only hurt, you need to follow the dosages, make the right diet and keep the animals in proper conditions.
The cow has “milk on the tongue”. If the technological conditions are observed, the amount of production per unit of feed increases. For fattening bulls, the cost of production is reduced. The amount of feed antibiotics per ton of feed is small: 10-40 g of active substance. They are delivered to the farms in a ready-to-use form. Feed antibiotics include:
- compound feed;
- vitamin and mineral premixes;
- protein and vitamin supplements;
- whole milk substitutes.
Private owners who are convinced that they do not use antibiotics, but who feed these products to animals, are deceiving themselves.
Feed antibiotics are supplied to farms only in this form, since special equipment is needed for accurate dosage and uniform distribution of the substance in the total mass of feed. “With their own hands” they are not made or mixed. Everything is done industrially. Only non-medical antibiotics are allowed to be added to feed in Our Country and the developed countries of the world.
Feed antibiotics do not impair the quality of meat and meat products. Apply these substances until the end of fattening. In Our Country, only 2 drugs are used for feeding cattle: Grizin and Bacitracin.
Safety measures
To avoid getting antibiotics into food, their use in animal husbandry is strictly regulated. You can not add antibacterial drugs to the feed of breeding animals. When fattening for meat, feed with antibiotics is excluded from the diet a day before slaughter.
It is forbidden to independently add any biologically active additives, including antibiotics, to premixes, feed and milk replacer, with the exception of Grisin and Bacitracin. The latter are already present in industrial feeds. Any antibiotics should not be given to cattle without prior mixing with feed. Diet components containing additives of feed antibiotics should not be heated above 80 °C.
Grisin
Grisinum belongs to the streptothricin antibiotics. Outwardly, it looks like a gray-white powder. The drug is easily soluble in water. Grizin has a wide spectrum of action, but its minus is weak activity. The drug is poorly absorbed in the intestinal tract. Grisin affects gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria.
Apply the drug in the form of kormogrizin. Kormogrizin is not a pure antibiotic. This is the dried mycelium of a mold fungus, in addition to an antibiotic containing:
- vital amino acids;
- vitamins;
- enzymes;
- pigments;
- other unidentified growth factors.
Due to the “impure” composition, kormogryzin is a brown or light yellow powder. Grisin content may vary. Dried mycelium contains 5, 10, or 40 mg/g of pure Grisin. The amount of Grisin is indicated on the package with mycelium. Bran and cornmeal are used as a filler.
In milk replacer, Grizin is introduced in the amount of 5 g per 1 ton. Premixes with Grizin are added to compound feeds at the rate of 10 kg per 1 ton.
Bacitracin
Bacitracinum is a polypeptide antibiotic. Its main part is bacitracin A. It looks like a gray-white powder. Let’s well dissolve in water. The taste is bitter. Bacitracin acts on gram-positive, as well as aerobic and anaerobic bacteria. Gram negatives are resistant to bacitracin.
Bacitracin is not absorbed in the intestinal tract and does not affect the response of gram-negative bacteria to other antibiotics. It has a pronounced growth-stimulating effect.
Bacitracin is produced in the form of Bacichilin. This drug has a dark or light brown color. In the preparation as fillers use:
- soy flour;
- bran;
- cornmeal;
- beet pulp.
In milk replacer Bacitracin is added at the rate of 50 g per 1 ton. In premixes – 10 kg per 1 ton of feed.
Bacteria have the ability to acquire resistance to antibacterial agents, therefore, in addition to the long-tested Grisin and Bacitracin, today the industry is mastering the production of other feed antibiotics. One of them, discovered more than half a century ago, is Vitamycin. From discovery to industrial use, the drug undergoes lengthy studies on the effects of the active substance on the body. Because of this, Vitamycin is only now being launched into production.
Vitamycin
Antibiotic inhibits:
- staphylococcus;
- gram-positive bacteria;
- spore sticks;
- some types of fungi;
- mycobacteria;
- spore sticks.
It has no effect on Gram-negative bacteria.
The drug does not cause changes in the internal organs, even at doses exceeding the recommended 100 times.
Vitamycin also allows you to save feed, since this type of antibiotic is also given not in a chemically pure form, but together with the dried mycelium of the fungus. When harvesting roughage, a lot of vitamin A is lost. Since only hay, without green grass, cattle are fed in the winter-spring period, at this time there is a large deficiency of carotene in the feed. Vitamycin is able to provide 80% of the needs of animals in vitamin A. The rest needs to be “collected” from hay and mixed feed.
Cormarin
This is the dried mycelium and nutrient liquid on which the fungus grew. Kormarin inhibits the development of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria, has an antimicrobial effect. But the drug does not work on other fungi and yeast.
Contains a complex of active substances:
- B vitamins;
- hormone-like substances;
- amino acids;
- antibiotics;
- other growth factors.
The initial strain has low antibiotic activity, but it can be changed by choosing the composition of the fermentation medium.
The use of Kormarin increases weight gain by 7-10%, increases the survival rate of young animals. By increasing protein metabolism and better digestibility of nutrients, it can reduce the cost of protein feed and compensate for vitamin A deficiency.
Antibiotics for cattle growth
The list of antibiotics for the growth of calves practically coincides with the list of feed antibacterial substances for cattle. Since bacteria adapt to antibiotics, weight gain in bulls began to decline. This has led to the search for new growth promoters that are no longer antibiotics. The use of antibacterial agents for calf growth today is more associated with the normalization of the intestinal flora than with the desire to increase weight gain.
With prolonged diarrhea, the calf loses weight and slows down in development. When the form is running, the animal may die. In addition to Grisin and Bacitracin, when feeding calves, antibiotics of the tetracycline group can be used. One of these drugs is the feed antibiotic Biovit-80.
Biovit-80
This is not an antibiotic in itself, but a preparation made from the mycelium of a fungus belonging to the group of streptomycins. The composition of the drug, which I add to the feed, includes:
- chlortetracycline;
- vitamin B₁₂;
- other B vitamins;
- fats;
- proteins;
- enzymes.
It looks like a free-flowing powder of dark or light brown color and has a specific smell.
The growth-stimulating effect of Biovit-80 is based on the suppression of the main microorganisms that cause indigestion in the calf:
- salmonella;
- leptospira;
- listeria;
- eherium;
- staphylococci;
- streptococci;
- enterobacteria;
- pasteurell;
- Clostridium;
- mycoplasma;
- chlamydia;
- Brucella;
- rickettsia;
- other Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria.
But Biovit-80 is ineffective against fungi, acid-resistant bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus. In cattle breeding, it is used for the prevention and treatment of not only gastrointestinal, but also lung diseases in calves.
Biovit-80 is safe for animals and helps to increase weight gain and milk yield in cattle. Since the maximum concentration of the drug in the blood lasts 8-12 hours after consumption, Biovit-80 is stopped giving to livestock 2 days before slaughter.
Levomycetin
Quite an old drug that people take lightly. At the slightest disturbance of the gastrointestinal tract, advice should usually be given to take Levomycetin, even if the disease is non-infectious. But this is a broad-spectrum agent, which is also used in the cultivation of cattle. Levomycetin inhibits the development of bacteria. From gram-positive affects streptococci and staphylococci. From Gram-negative:
- salmonella;
- coli;
- rickettsii.
The spectrum of action on human pathogenic bacteria in Levomycetin is wider.
In addition to bacteria, Levomycetin can even destroy spirochetes and some large viruses. Also, the drug is active against strains resistant to streptomycin, sulfonamides and penicillin. The resistance of microorganisms to Levomycetin develops slowly.
It is generally a very strong and poisonous antibiotic that is recommended when there is no other choice. It is used in case of serious illnesses. Against the background of the uncontrolled use of Levomycetin by people, the fear of feed antibiotics looks far-fetched.
Neomycin
When breeding and rearing cattle, most calves die as a result of colibacillosis. For the treatment and prevention of diseases of the gastrointestinal tract in the United States since the 80s, antibiotics of the aminoglycoside group have been used. One such antibiotic is neomycin.
The advantages of Neomycin are that it is almost not absorbed into the tissues from the gastrointestinal tract. Due to this, in medicine it is used to sterilize the intestines before surgery. In animal husbandry, Neomycin is used as a feed antibiotic that acts on strepto- and staphylococci.
Antibiotics for cows against infections
The number of antibiotics used to treat infectious diseases is much wider. Such use involves short-term administration of the drug. By the time of slaughter, the antibiotic will have already been removed from the body of the animal. When treating a dairy cow, milk should not be consumed during treatment and for 10-14 days after the end of the antibiotic course.
The most common antibiotics for treating infections are:
- streptomycin;
- penicillins;
- of tetracycline.
The groups take their name from the first antibiotic and the fungus from which it was derived. But today, synthetic antibiotics, also belonging to these groups, are already more common. Quite popular Bicillin-5 belongs to penicillins.
Streptomycin
Streptomycins for cattle include streptomycin sulfate and streptodymycin. Has a wide spectrum of action. It is used to treat:
- bronchopneumonia;
- pasteurellosis;
- salmonellosis;
- listeriosis;
- brucellosis;
- tularemia;
- infectious mastitis;
- sepsis;
- diseases of the genitourinary tract;
- other diseases.
The dosage is calculated per 1 kg of live weight. Apply subcutaneously.
The disadvantage of Streptomycin is the rapid addiction of bacteria to the drug. Therefore, Streptomycin is not recommended for long-term use.
Streptodymycin on the spectrum of action is an analogue of Streptomycin, but animals tolerate this drug more easily. Enter it intramuscularly.
The course of treatment with both drugs is 3-5 days.
Tetracycline
Tetracyclines also have a wide spectrum of action. They act not only on most bacteria, but also on some types of protozoa. It is useless to apply against causative agents of paratyphoid.
Tetracyclines are well absorbed. They have the ability to be evenly distributed in the tissues of the body. This group of antibiotics is excreted from the body through the kidneys, so they are most often used to treat urinary tract infections. For cattle, they are slightly toxic, but can cause side effects in the gastrointestinal tract of cattle:
- atoniyu;
- dysbiosis;
- violation of bacterial fermentation;
- avitaminosis.
The pure substance is a yellow crystalline powder. Requires storage in a dark place, as it breaks down in the light.
Antibiotics of this group are prescribed for the treatment of:
- sepsis;
- listeriosis;
- purulent pleura;
- mastitis;
- hoof rot;
- the peritoneum;
- urinary tract infections;
- conjunctivitis;
- inflammation of the mucous membranes;
- pasteurellosis;
- dyspepsia;
- colibacteriosis;
- coccidiosis;
- pneumonia;
- other diseases, the pathogens of which are sensitive to tetracyclines.
The dose for cattle when taken orally is 10-20 mg/kg of live weight.
Пенициллин
The ancestor of all antibiotics – Penicillin, is no longer used today. Microflora managed to adapt to it. Bicillin-5 is a synthetic agent composed of 2 substances of the penicillin group:
- benzathine benzylpenicillin;
- benzylpenicillin novocaine salt.
In the treatment of cattle, Bicillin is used for almost the same diseases in which tetracyclines and streptomycins are used. When choosing antibiotics, you need to pay attention to the reaction of the animal to the drug.
Dosage of Bicillin for cattle: adult animals – 10 thousand units. per 1 kg of weight; young growth – 15 thousand units. per 1 kg.
Penstrep
The name itself gives out the composition of the remedy: antibiotics of the penicillin and streptomycin groups. It is prescribed for cattle in case of illness:
- respiratory tract;
- listeriosis;
- septicemia;
- meningitis;
- salmonellosis;
- mastitis;
- secondary infections.
Penstrep is used intramuscularly at a dosage of 1 ml / 25 kg of body weight.
The product is produced in liquid form in 100 ml glass bottles. After a course of antibiotics, slaughter of cattle for meat is allowed only 23 days after the last injection.
Gentamicin
It belongs to the group of aminoglycoside antibiotics. Destroys most of the bacteria that cause the disease, but is powerless against:
- mushrooms;
- protozoa;
- anaerobic bacteria (tetanus cannot be treated);
- viruses.
Used to treat diseases of the gastrointestinal tract and respiratory tract, sepsis, peritonitis and other diseases. When administered orally, it almost does not penetrate from the intestine into the tissues of the animal, for 12 hours it is active only in the gastrointestinal tract and is excreted along with feces. When injected, the maximum concentration in the blood occurs after 1 hour. When injected, the antibiotic is excreted from the body along with urine.
Dosage for cattle: 0,5 ml per 10 kg of body weight 2 times a day. Slaughter for meat is permissible only 3 weeks after the last injection. When using Gentamycin on dairy cattle, milk consumption is allowed only 3 days after the end of treatment.
Conclusion
Antibiotics for cattle today are already an integral part of animal husbandry. The owner of a commodity farm, even being a staunch opponent of antibiotics, sooner or later will start using them so as not to lose income. Only a private livestock owner who keeps a cow for himself and is ready to slaughter an animal in case of a serious illness can afford to do without antibiotics.
