Farming propped up by antimicrobials 'will have to go says chief vet

The chief vet has blasted the use of antimicrobials when they are not needed as ‘indefensible’. Speaking during a question time session at the British Cattle Veterinary Association congress last week, Nigel Gibbens, said antimicrobial must only be used when needed. And, while sympathetic to different scenarios and pressures on vets, he said it was important for vets to act consistently and for farmers to get a consistent message from them. Robin Brown, a cattle vet practising in Preston, told him vets often faced pressure to prescribe antimicrobials. For example, if they treated individual cows but, subsequently, further cows in the same herd died, farmers often blamed the vet for not prescribing antimicrobials for the whole herd in the first place. Gibbens sympathised, saying ‘the reality of that must be very difficult and in my role I don’t have to deal with it’. But he said such a...
Source: Veterinary Record - Category: Veterinary Research Tags: News section Source Type: research