Assessing the Associations Among Facility Design and Management Practices and Drug Use in Ontario Free-Stall Dairy Herds

Abstract

In recent years, issues centered on drug use in food producing animals have emerged as major food safety concerns in this agricultural sector. The dairy industry must adopt practical management strategies that minimize drug use in cattle. These strategies need to be identified and must focus on husbandry practices and facility design that minimize animal stress, and that contain specific biosecurity, sanitation and nutritional recommendations to minimize disease-and therefore drug use-in food animals.