Leading Pneumonia Antibiotic Gains License For Preventive Use
08/05/06

The market-leading antibiotic for the treatment of pneumonia in cattle can now also be used to prevent animals contracting the disease.

Thanks to the new Nuflor preventive license, farmers can now discuss with their vet the antibiotic treatment of in-contact calves as a means of reducing the spread of pneumonia

Schering-Plough Animal Health says its Nuflor antibiotic can now be used for the batch treatment of potentially sick calves once the presence of pneumonia has been established in a group.

“Nuflor can now be used for prevention of pneumonia caused by Mannheimia haemolytica, Pasteurella multocida and Histophilus somni and can be achieved under veterinary prescription by the subcutaneous injection of 2ml/15kg Nuflor,” explains Schering-Plough livestock veterinary adviser Andrew Montgomery.

Nuflor gains its new product license on the back of multi-centre clinical field trials involving 684 calves on commercial farms. The results demonstrated the significant benefit of whole batch treatment as a prevention of further disease spread when at least 20% of the animals exhibited pneumonia symptoms.

“In outbreaks of pneumonia, whole pen treatment with Nuflor of sick and in- contact animals was compared with the treatment of sick animals only. Five days after Nuflor treatment, 98.4% of the in-contact animals remained pneumonia-free, compared to only 78.5% of the untreated in-contacts.

Andrew Montgomery says farmers now have the opportunity to consider the treatment of in-contact cattle as a means of reducing the spread of pneumonia.

“The bacteria responsible for pneumonia are found in the respiratory tract of healthy cattle and stress - such as the movement of dairy calves to rearing units - or exposure to sick calves can easily trigger disease. Under veterinary supervision, farmers can now consider treating exposed animals with Nuflor before pneumonia symptoms have an opportunity to present,” he says.

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