Level of Drug Dispensing and Future Changes Anticipated by Food Animal Veterinary Practices - A Regional Comparison

Veterinary practices are continually undergoing change in response to scientific and economic activities. The types of services offered can change over time in response to client needs. \u27 As with any industry, changes are dynamic and a natural phenomenon for increasing or at least maintaining the income base. Drug dispensing as a part of the veterinary practice is one element of change currently receiving attention. Evaluation and discussion of this alternative is occurring in the animal health field

Botanicals for Pigs—Garlic II

Botanicals have been proposed as a substitute for antimicrobials in swine diets because of potential natural antibacterial activity. Garlic (Allium sativam), a botanical that grows in Iowa, was compared with a standard antibacterial nursery dietary regimen. A trial conducted in 1997 had inclusion levels of 0.0, 0.5, 2.5 and 5%. These levels of garlic generally depressed feed intake and average daily gain in nursery pigs and depressed performance compared with the control diet with Mecadox. Muscle samples from the garlic-fed pigs all had “very objectionable” or “extremely objectionable” off-flavors. This trial fed inclusion levels of 0.00, 0.10, 0.25, and 0.50% garlic, levels that hopefully would be low enough not to depress performance or alter meat flavors. Pigs fed diets without Mecadox demonstrated significantly poorer performance than with Mecadox inclusion. Based upon this and the 1997 studies at Iowa State University, pigs fed diets without Mecadox performed less well than those fed Mecadox. The addition of garlic did not enhance pig performance

Botanicals for Pigs–Echinacea II

Botanicals have been proposed as a substitute for antimicrobials in swine diets because of their natural antibacterial activity. Echinacea, a botanical grown in Iowa, was compared with an antibacterial nursery feeding program consisting of 50 g of Mecadox per ton. At the tested Echinacea levels (0, 0.10, 0.25, and 0.50%) in experiment I, Mecadox generally elicited a positive response for daily gain and feed efficiency over the Echinacea treatments during the nursery phase. In experiment II (Echinacea levels of 0, 1.5, and 3.0%), there were only minor or no differences between Mecadox and the various Echinacea additions, indicating a high level of pig health. The cumulative data were inconsistent, with the 3.0% Echinacea often showing improved feed efficiency and daily gain (weeks 0–3) and better daily gain (weeks 0–3 and 0–5) compared with 0.0 or 1.5% Echinacea. Periodic data (Table 5) numerically suggested that the 3% Echinacea supplement enhanced daily gain equal to the Mecadox diet