Progress report for SW24-005
Project Information
Antibiotics are an important tool for livestock producers to manage herd health. Concerns about antibiotic resistance in humans and livestock continue to increase (ONeill, 2016).
We hypothesize that many beef cattle producers are not necessarily selecting the most efficacious treatment protocol for some common veterinary medical disease processes. This proposal will investigate if livestock producers are selecting effective antibiotics to target specific pathogens. We propose that producer education can promote better outcomes in clinical cases by promoting judicious use of antibiotics which in turn will foster antibiotic sustainability.
Our project begins by surveying livestock producers and veterinary clinics to research current practices regarding antibiotic use on Montana ranches. The survey will be mixed-mode (online and paper-based). Survey responses will be analyzed and used to create a decision matrix for the top 5 conditions producers treat. This information will be utilized in the following years of the project to lead educational sessions throughout the state. Our project’s expected outcome is to educate livestock producers to more specifically target pathogens with the appropriate antibiotic therapy. We believe that using the most appropriate therapy will reduce the overall amount of antibiotics being used. This will help reduce antimicrobial resistance in the animals being treated which has many positive consequences including improved animal health and public health (Bengtsson, 2014).
We plan to cooperate with state and local producer groups across the state including local affiliates of the Montana Stockgrowers Association and Montana Farm Bureau Federation to disseminate this information at in-person workshops. We will submit articles to producer publications and to state and local organizations for their newsletters. We will work with the Montana Veterinary Medical Association to distribute the results to veterinarians. Montana State University Extension agents will also be critical partners, particularly in the educational portion of the project.
We expect to present this information at at least 20 workshops across the state. We plan to publish articles in 10 producer magazines or newsletters. We will cooperate with other groups such as Cattleman U, Western Sustainability Exchange, Northern Ag Network, and Western Ag Network to reach producers online and on the radio.
Research Objectives:
Our overall research objective is to determine what antibiotics are most commonly used in Montana and what diseases are commonly treated. Then we will review published scientific literature for these diseases to create a decision matrix to guide more effective treatment strategies.
Specific research objectives:
- Survey 10,000 livestock producers and 1000 veterinarians in Montana to determine current practices concerning antibiotic use by written and online questionnaires. Our goal is at least a 5% response rate by August 2024.
- Analyze survey responses to determine trends and statistical probabilities.
- Compare and contrast survey responses to best practices. Develop best treatment practice recommendations for the top 5 veterinary medical problems based on survey results of conditions being treated, antibiotics commonly used, and scientific literature reviews. Create a decision matrix for each of the top 5 veterinary medical problems identified.
Education objectives:
- Design educational curriculum and a handout based on results of our research objectives (survey responses and decision matrix).
- Present to livestock producers at a minimum of 20 producer groups community presentations.
- Create and submit articles for producer publications based on survey results and educational curriculum.
- Create content for social media posts and blogs. Collaborate with other organizations to disseminate the information on their established webinars, podcasts, and radio shows.
- Present research results at the Montana Veterinary Medical Association state meeting and publish a scientific journal article.
Cooperators
- - Producer
- - Producer
- - Producer
- (Researcher)
- - Producer
Research
Research Objective 1: The final survey was completed on July 15, 2024. It took us longer than expected to receive IRB approval and put us behind on our timeline. We did not do direct mailings as we could not come up with a good mailing list of producers. The list available to purchase had variable success according to the Social Data group. We promoted the survey through newsletters of Montana Stockgrowers Association, Montana Farm Bureau, Montana Veterinary Medical Association, Western Sustainability Exchange and Montana Extension Agents. It was advertised on the Northern Ag Network radio station and social media pages. Additionally, members of our team brought the surveys to producer events and the Montana Veterinary Medical Association meeting and passed out paper surveys there. We stopped accepting surveys on February 28, 2025.
Research Objective 2: In April 2025, Social Data provided data summaries and SCRS began their data analysis. They plan to have it completed by September 2025.
Research Objective 3: We can begin our literature review when Social Data and SCRS is done with their analysis (September 2025-December 2025). We can begin work on our decision matrix at the conclusion of the literature review (January 2026-May 2026).
The delays have shifted our whole timeline which you can see updated on the attached Gantt chart.
Cover_letters_FINAL_15July2024
Producer_questionnaire_FINAL_13June2024
These data summaries are the results of the information collected in our Research Objective 1 and the basis for our continued research in Research Objective 2.
Research Outcomes
We have the data summaries from our surveys that we will use to direct our further research and outreach. We now have information about commonly treated diseases and commonly used antibiotics. The top five diseases treated are pneumonia, footrot, scours, pinkeye and coccidiosis. The top five antibiotics used are oxytetracycline, tulithromycin, florfenciol, penicillin, and sulfonamides. Ancillary treatments are often used and most producers chose antibiotics based on their veterinarians recommendations.
We have collected information about the demographics of these producers and the statistics team will see if there are any trends relating to herd size, species, calving date or class of livestock marketed.
We learned how livestock producers keep treatment records (most use a notebook). This leads us to believe our future educational materials we create should be in written form so they can refer to them when they are treating livestock.
All classes of livestock are treated fairly equally with newborn calves being slightly less. Most producers do not use antibiotics for prevention of disease.
Education and Outreach
Participation Summary:
Our education and outreach will begin this year now that our survey has been completed.
During the first year, we did do one presentation to the Farm Bureau group in Townsend and also did a radio interview with the Northern Ag Network.
Due to delays in survey collection, the educational objectives have changed their timeline.
Education Objective 1: We can create a handout of the survey results when we begin to get information from Social Data (expected June 2025-September 2025). We can create our handout for the decision matrix in May 2026.
Education Objective 2: Our 20 community presentations will be scheduled from May 2026-March 2027.
Education Objective 3: We can write an article on the survey results when we get the information from Social Data (expected June 2025-September 2025).
Education Objective 4 & 5: No change.