In many of the big farming countries, the trend has been to increase the size of the animal holdings. This has implied a change in the pattern of the animal diseases recognized in the herds and a change in the veterinary services to the breeders. Especially are recognized whole herds with the same contagious disease such as enteritis, pleuropneumonia etc. Typical diseases related to housing systems and stock density. At the same time there has been a development in designing new medicinal product intended for animal application to prevent herd diseases.
Typical medicaments are antibiotics.
In recent years, a number of microbes have been identified as causative agents to enteritis and pleuropneumonia etc. There are additional indications that the genes containing resistance can transfer to other microbes giving them the same characteristic. In rare cases no known effective antibiotics are available. The World Veterinary Association should take part in any position-making body in the area. WVA members should, on a national basis and on a regional basis, promote the WVA long term objective on banning antibiotics for growth promoting purposes in herds and should contribute with advice and proposals for farming procedures better safeguarding animals and consumers.