Cattle vets focus on industry challenges

THERE likely were some less-familiar faces handling emergency vet calls on farms last week. The reason is that a good many vets were in Omaha for the annual meeting of the American Association of Bovine Practitioners. Right at 1,000 veterinarians attended the meeting. There were scores of seminars, workshops, and research reports on topics ranging from effective clothing and footwear for vets to ultrasound basics and from BVD transmission between wildlife and cattle to how to deal with neck, shoulder, and arm problems. Herd checks are hard work.

Many of the general sessions at the AABP meeting this year dealt with issues surrounding responsible drug use. A major focus was on the need for veterinarians and producers to follow drug labels carefully and to be very diligent when using extra-label drug treatments with special emphasis on the need for a valid veterinarian, client, patient relationship.

We heard at the meeting that there are dozens of organizations, most well-funded, but misguided, that want to shut down the U.S. livestock industry. Passing laws banning or severely restricting use of antibiotics is one way they are trying to do that. Never mind that there is no conclusive evidence linking food animal antibiotic use with antibiotic resistance in humans. Those groups also don’t seem to be concerned about how inhumane it is to not treat a sick animal just as it would be unthinkable to not treat a sick person.

A lot of what groups like AABP and the American Veterinary Medical Association do is to go to bat for the food animal industries on issues such as antibiotic use and animal welfare.