Health management with reduced antibiotic use - experiences of a Danish pig vet

During the late 1990s, all use of antibiotic growth promotors for production animals was gradually banned in Denmark. At the same time, the legislation on prescription of medicine was tightened and registration of usage became mandatory. Following the ban, the prevalence of diarrhoea - often caused by Lawsonia intercellularis - increased, which led to an expected increased use of therapeutic antibiotics. However, the consumption never reached the same amount of antibiotics as distributed before the ban. As a consequence, production performance dropped with a reduction of 18 g to 50 g per day in daily gain and mortality increased by an extra 0.6% to 1.5%, especially in the weaner period. The cost of this is at least from 1 to 3 US dollars per animal. No reliably substitute to antibiotic has been found yet, but improvement of the diet and management on all levels are important factors for compensation. Further investigations in this area are called for in the future.