Section: Animal Science
Topic: Agricultural sciences, Biophysics and computational biology, Systems biology

Individual or collective treatments: how to target antimicrobial use to limit the spread of Mannheimia haemolytica among beef cattle?

Sorin-Dupont, Baptiste1  ; Poyard, Antoine 1; Assié, Sebastien1 ; Picault, Sebastien 1 ; Ezanno, Pauline1 
1 Oniris, INRAE, BIOEPAR, 44300, Nantes, France

Corresponding author(s): Sorin-Dupont, Baptiste (baptiste.sorin@outlook.com)

10.24072/pcjournal.629 - Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article no. e104

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The overuse of antibiotics has become a major global concern due to its role in diminishing treatment effectiveness and positively selecting antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains. This issue is particularly important in the beef cattle sector, where Bovine Respiratory Diseases (BRD) impose significant economic and welfare burdens. BRD are complex, multifactorial conditions primarily affecting young calves and feedlot cattle, caused by a combination of viral and bacterial pathogens, environmental factors, and stressors. Despite efforts to reduce antimicrobial use (AMU), the cattle production system remains heavily reliant on antibiotics to control BRD, often through the implementation of collective treatments to prevent outbreaks. This study aimed at evaluating the impact of various strategies of collective treatments with antimicrobials on the spread of a BRD pathogen, Mannheimia haemolytica, specifically focusing on criteria for implementing collective treatments. Using a mechanistic stochastic model, we simulated the spread of M. haemolytica in a multi-pen fattening operation under sixteen different scenarios, considering pen composition, individual risk levels, and treatment strategies. Our findings suggest that an alternative criterion for collective treatments based on the speed of the disease spread, could reduce BRD incidence and AMU more effectively than conventional methods. This research highlights the importance of responsible collective treatment strategies and the potential benefits of novel criteria for collective treatment in improving animal health. Moreover, it emphasizes the need for transparency on the exposure to risk factors along the production chain.

Published online:
DOI: 10.24072/pcjournal.629
Type: Research article
Keywords: Stochastic modeling, Epidemiology, Bovine Respiratory Disease, Collective treatment, Stochastic modeling, Epidemiology, Bovine Respiratory Disease, Collective treatment, Stochastic modeling, Epidemiology, Bovine Respiratory Disease, Collective treatment, Stochastic modeling, Epidemiology, Bovine Respiratory Disease, Collective treatment, Stochastic modeling, Epidemiology, Bovine Respiratory Disease, Collective treatment, Stochastic modeling, Epidemiology, Bovine Respiratory Disease, Collective treatment

Sorin-Dupont, Baptiste 1; Poyard, Antoine  1; Assié, Sebastien 1; Picault, Sebastien  1; Ezanno, Pauline 1

1 Oniris, INRAE, BIOEPAR, 44300, Nantes, France
License: CC-BY 4.0
Copyrights: The authors retain unrestricted copyrights and publishing rights 
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     title = {Individual or collective treatments: how to target antimicrobial use to limit the spread of {\protect\emph{Mannheimia} haemolytica} among beef cattle?},
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Sorin-Dupont, B.; Poyard, A.; Assié, S.; Picault, S.; Ezanno, P. Individual or collective treatments: how to target antimicrobial use to limit the spread of Mannheimia haemolytica among beef cattle?. Peer Community Journal, Volume 5 (2025), article  no. e104. https://doi.org/10.24072/pcjournal.629

PCI peer reviews and recommendation, and links to data, scripts, code and supplementary information: 10.24072/pci.animsci.100345

Conflict of interest of the recommender and peer reviewers:
The recommender in charge of the evaluation of the article and the reviewers declared that they have no conflict of interest (as defined in the code of conduct of PCI) with the authors or with the content of the article.

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