Maude Lebrun graduated in 2000 from the University of Liège with a doctorate in veterinary medicine. She first worked for Haliba, in cattle insemination and embryo transfer, as a relay between her internship supervisor and his replacement. She then started as an assistant researcher in bacteriology at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Liège, supervising students and researching on Clostridium perfringens. In 2007, she left the faculty to join the ARSIA team in Ciney where she managed the Projet Gestion Prévention Santé, and developed various projects related to cattle health: monitoring of abortions, deficiencies in selenium, copper and zinc, scabies, transfer of immunity, neosporosis and salmonellosis. In 2012, she joined the Cattle team of MSD Animal Health Belgium, as a technical veterinarian and she finally defended her PhD thesis on bovine enterotoxemia in 2018. Currently, she works for MSD Animal Health, which has since become Benelux.

The MSD Animal health UnDDER control DC App aims to help vets & farmers to improve the management of the dry cow period through a simple and robust analysis.

The app includes two modules:

• One on global dry cow management with a systematic questionnaire on 5 critical phases of the dry cow period. It aims to identify the strengths and weaknesses specific to the farm.
• One on udder health status before and after the dry cow period. This module helps to get a clear understanding of the udder health dynamics during the dry cow period on farm.

Together, these modules allow to identify and select major points for improvement and to follow-up over time. The ultimate goal of this tool is to make implementation of selective dry cow treatment possible. 

Eliminating intramammary infections with antiinfectives is a method invented between the 1940s and 1960s. This technique flourished as a remarkable therapeutic segment, and intramammary infusion of antibiotics has become a prevalent method. Early treatment of mastitis during lactation, especially treatment at dry-off, has been the mainstay of IMI control. Hundreds of pharmaceutical specialities are currently available globally, and the massive application of intramammary antibiotic therapy has made it possible, and still makes it possible in many regions, to contribute to the satisfactory control of mastitis. However, these treatments are at a crossroads.

On the one hand, their need decreases with the high level of control of major pathogens. Then, the increasing pressure on the use of antibiotics, particularly for the prevention of IMI during the dry-up, the improvement of technologies and diagnostic solutions at cow and herd level, then the virtual ban of some antimicrobial categories combined to the need to take into consideration in the day to day practices the new classification of antimicrobials at European level, requires serious reflection on therapeutic strategies; that is the subject of this seminar. One point deserves consideration: are the drugs, even recent ones, developed on the basis that prevailed at the end of the 1960s still satisfactory in the current epidemiological and regulatory situation? Designed to be of considerable aid in a context of systematic treatment based on epidemiological-clinical reasoning, do they deliver the same results in a framework of targeted treatment preceded by a documented diagnosis? This introductory comment calls for a careful assessment of the available pharmaceutical specialities as part of the new recommendations for use.

Jamie Deckers is a veterinarian graduated in 2014 with a passion for ruminants. After her studies she did internships with different veterinarians, both in farm animals and companion animals, after which she decided to leave practice, in the literal sense of the word, behind and enter the interesting world of pharmacy. She started at HIPRA as an account manager to get her first sales experience and gradually started providing more technical support for veterinarians and farmers. She fills her days with farm visits, mainly around udder health and BRD issues, giving presentations and advising and following up with her clients. She is convinced that prevention is the key to a sustainable future in livestock farming.