Bovine respiratory disease: Efficacy of different prophylactic treatments in veal calves and antimicrobial resistance of isolated Pasteurellaceae

The present study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of two prophylactic antibiotic treatments against bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in veal calves. In addition, the antibiotic susceptibilities of isolated Pasteurellaceae were tested. The calves were treated either on the day of arrival by a single administration of tulathromycin (group A, n = 20), by a peroral administration of chlortetracycline, sulphadimidine, and tylosin (group B, n = 20) for seven consecutive days, or were not prophylactically treated (group C, n = 19). On the first day of clinically diagnosed BRD, transtracheal lavage samples were obtained prior to therapeutic treatment and were subsequently cultured. Pasteurellaceae isolates were tested for their susceptibility to 12 antimicrobial agents by the determination of the minimal inhibitory concentrations. During the first 56 d after arrival, different calves in group A and B suffered from one episode of clinically diagnosed BRD while calves of group C experienced two episodes. The average daily weight gain during the same period was significantly lower in group C (0.89 ± 0.04 kg/d) than in the two prophylactically treated groups (1.14 ± 0.05 and 1.15 ± 0.04 kg/d for group A and B, respectively). The improved performance of groups A and B in comparison to group C could be related to a lower incidence of respiratory disorders during the first days after arrival in the prophylactically treated animals. No differences in the clinical efficacy were seen between the two tested prophylactic treatments. The most prevalent bacterial pathogens isolated (n = 79) were Pasteurella multocida (23% of isolated pathogens), Mycoplasma bovis (18%), and Mannheimia varigena (16%). For the isolated Pasteurellaceae, a high resistance pattern was observed to tylosin (83% of the tested P. multocida and 88% of the Mannheimia spp. isolates resistant) and tilmicosin (56% of the tested P. multocida isolates non-sensitive).