The Study
Comparison of Antibiotic Use and the Frequency of Diseases Depending on the Size of Herd and the Type of Cattle Breeding
This study looked at different kinds of cattle farms and noticed that bigger dairy farms used more antibiotics and had more sick animals. But it didn’t prove that being a big farm made animals sicker—it just saw a pattern. It’s like noticing that kids who eat more candy also get more cavities, but we don’t know if the candy caused the cavities or if something else (like brushing less) is the real reason.
Analysis score
Maximum 72 for a cohort study.
Where the score came from
Big dairy farms have more cows packed together, which leads to more sickness like mastitis and diarrhea in calves, so they give more antibiotics to treat them.
Where does this study sit?
Reviews of RCTs (Meta-analyses)
Max 100Randomized Trials
Max 90Reviews of Cohort Studies
Max 85Cohort Studies
Max 72Reviews of Case-Control Studies
Max 63Case-Control Studies
Max 58Cross-Sectional & Case Series
Max 50Expert Opinion
Max 516 / 100
Quality score
Groups of people are followed over time to see who develops an outcome. Strong for identifying risk factors and associations, but cannot prove causation as firmly as RCTs.
Key takeaways
Summary
Based on the study abstract and findings.
- 1Yes — this means big dairy farms are using far more high-risk antibiotics, which could make infections harder to treat in humans and animals over time.
- 2Big dairy farms used 18.29 mg of antibiotics per cow per year — 5 times more than small dairy or beef farms.
- 3Mastitis affected 16% of cows on big farms vs.
- 46% on small ones.
- 5Diarrhea hit 26% of calves on big farms vs.
- 6just 3% on beef farms.
Score breakdown, methodology, conflicts of interest, evidence analysis & raw study data
Publication
Journal
Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI
Year
2024
Authors
R. Kupczyński, Michał Bednarski, Marcin Sokołowski, W. Kowalkowski, Katarzyna Pacyga
Related Content
Claims (7)
Dairy farms in Poland with more cows report mastitis in 15.85% of cases, while medium farms report it in 5.98% of cases; this difference correlates with higher use of category D antibiotics on larger farms, suggesting farm size and management practices are linked to mastitis rates.
Large dairy farms in Poland with more than 250 cows use more antibiotics than medium dairy farms or large beef farms because they report more cases of mastitis, calf diarrhea, and respiratory diseases.
Large dairy farms in Poland use five times more high-priority antibiotics than medium dairy or beef farms, primarily for treating infections and dry cow therapy.
Calves on large dairy farms in Poland get gastrointestinal diseases at a rate of 26.07%, which is much higher than on large beef farms or medium dairy farms, and these farms also use more antibiotics for general treatment.
Large dairy farms in Poland use restricted antibiotics for dry cow therapy more often than medium farms, and this practice increases the risk of antimicrobial resistance.
On large beef farms in Poland, antibiotics are mainly given to calves to treat respiratory infections, digestive problems, and leg issues, and these treatments are driven by farm conditions and management practices, not by udder infections.
Not medical advice. For informational purposes only. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional before making health decisions.