Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Founded in 1909, UFA Co-operative Limited is an Alberta-based agricultural co-operative with more than 120,000 member-owners. UFA’s network comprises more than 114 bulk fuel and Cardlock Petroleum locations, 34 Farm & Ranch Supply stores and a support office in Calgary, AB. Independent Petroleum Agents and over 1,000 UFA employees provide products, services and agricultural solutions to farmers, ranchers, members and commercial customers in Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan.
NARRATION
It takes a certain kind of ambition to do what farmers do. Between the hours and the hard labor, to the
public scrutiny and bureaucratic maze running, it's not an easy task. While the agriculture industry feeds
millions quietly tilling and producing behind the scenes, many forget that our food comes from the
hands of real people with real stories.
Join us as we share stories from those with boots on the ground and unearth unique perspectives on
agriculture's biggest conversations. It's time to grab your shovel and get to work. I'm Don Shafer and this
is Digging In with UFA.
In recent years, there's been increasing concern about what goes into our food. When it comes to cattle
production, the use of antibiotics and antimicrobials at large can sometimes create pause with the
consumer. How do we keep our animals safe while assuring the food is safe for the public? Today we dig
into antimicrobials within cattle production.
Life sometimes has a funny way of guiding you to places you didn't expect. The son of a cattle farmer,
but far from interested in developing a career in agriculture, our guest today could not have predicted
that he would become the CEO of a cattle company of his own. Now with a look into his life, running one
of the largest feedlot operations in Western Canada, here's Ryan Kasko.
---
RYAN KASKO
My name is Ryan Kasko. My family has a farm, Kasko Cow Company, located in southern Alberta. I'm the
president of our company. Kasko Cattle is a family owned and operated farm, but we've grown beyond
what some people might call a family farm. We have about 70 employees and we have five different
feedlot locations where we feed a total of nearly 50 ,000 cattle at one time. A large part of our
businesses, we have about 6 ,000 acres of irrigated farmland. And so, we're growing crops for our cattle,
but growing crops for canola oil. We grow peas and beans and triticale and mint and dill and various
crops.
I am a little bit unusual in that in some respects I'm a first-generation farmer. I didn't grow up on a farm.
My father was a cattle dealer, so he was involved in agriculture. And I went to university, the last thing
on my mind was getting involved in agriculture. It wasn't even on top of mind. I thought I was going to
be a big businessman or a lawyer or something like that. And didn't realize that agriculture is a quite
significant business in Southern Alberta. Just didn't make that connection. And I had a co -op job
working for an agricultural chemical company and was really fascinated by the agriculture industry. And
when I finished university, we purchased a farm. So that was 27 years ago. Since then, we've really put
our hearts and souls into it and grown our business. And I just find it such a satisfying business to be a
part of.
---
NARRATION
Growing up on a dairy farm, you had to work. Thriving alongside your cattle and developing a
hardworking skill set is just par for the course as a dairy kid. When deciding what she wanted to do
when she grew up, our next guest leaned into what she knew best, maybe even what she was destined
for by becoming a veterinarian. Looking out for the well -being of cattle and livestock, Joyce knows the
necessities of keeping a healthy herd. Here to provide her expertise into all things antimicrobial within
agriculture, this is Dr. Joyce Van Donkersgoed.
---
DR. JOYCE VAN DONKERSGOED
I'm Joyce Van Donkersgoed and I am an independent business person. I'm a veterinarian, specialized in
advanced bovine medicine epidemiology. I'm a farm kid from East of Colville, Alberta. My dad had a
dairy till I was 11 and he went into cow -calf and then the land got too expensive for pasture so then he
went into feedlot. So, I was a fortunate kid that I got to grow up, you know, being exposed both to dairy
operation, cow -calf, and feedlot cattle. So, I was always in the barn, you know, or with my dad in the
corrals, hauling pails of chop, feeding calves, moving irrigation pipes. So, working hard, that was a big
thing with Dutch kids, you have to work hard.
You know, when I was 12 years old, I decided I was going to be a cattle vet. I love cattle and I like fixing
problems. Some people think cattle are stupid. And cattle are not stupid. None of us are Dr. Dolittle. I
wish I could talk to animals so they can tell me really what's going on. But cattle are actually very
intelligent. And you can learn a lot by watching cattle. They actually tell you how they're feeling, how
they're doing. I think to be a good producer or a good veterinarian, you have to respect the animals and
you have to have empathy for them because they can feel everything like we can as a human. Their
nervous system is as well -developed as ours. You know, a healthy pen of cattle or get a brand-new pen
of calves coming in, nice bunch of little black baldies. They're all eating at the bunk and they're all happy
wagging their tails. It just makes you feel good.
---
So, antimicrobials is a broad term for any substance that will either inhibit or destroy bacteria or
parasites or fungus or viruses. So, it's a broader term than antibiotic. Antibiotic is more term restricted
to substances that will either slow down the growth or kill bacteria. Antimicrobial is a broader category,
includes antibiotics, but it also includes antivirals, antiparasitics, antiseptics. So, it's just a bigger term to
include more things. So, if we, as either human doctors or veterinary doctors, are not responsible in how
we prescribe antibiotics in particular, then misuse of them or inappropriate use or overuse can lead to
the development of antimicrobial or antibiotic resistance. And that means it's going to be harder to treat
either a human or an animal with that particular product. And so, it's a global matter because both
human doctors and veterinary doctors have to work together with many other stakeholders, including
producers like Ryan, to ensure we use antimicrobials or antibiotics responsibly. Because if we don't, we
will get resistance development in bacteria that maybe it's common bacteria that can inflict both
humans and animals. Or it may be bacteria in an animal that may not cause disease in a human. But if
that bacteria gets in the environment, potentially it can spread that resistance to other bacteria that
may be of importance to humans or vice versa. Humans travel all over the world, right? We've seen that
with COVID, how quickly something can spread. And animals, you know, we do import export animals.
So, you can transport bacteria that might be resistance to something and you can spread that resistance
if you're not careful.
So, we all need to work together to reduce antimicrobial resistance, to ensure that we have continued
access to antimicrobials, but they also continue, most importantly, to work for us to keep both humans
and animals healthy.
---
NARRATION
How do we maintain adequate dosage and proper use of antimicrobials when raising cattle to avoid
antibiotic resistance? Understanding that even Canadian public policy has deemed antimicrobial
resistance is a serious public health concern around the world.
---
RYAN KASKO
So, I have cowboys and cowgirls that will ride through the pens every day and they're assessing the
cattle for their health. And at times there will be an animal that is showing signs of some type of
sickness. And in a case like that, we have worked with our veterinarians to develop a protocol. If we find
a sick animal, we would take it to a central spot, our hospital, where we put them in a squeeze where
the animal's contained.
We check its temperature with a thermometer. We have a shoot side computer program to determine
the sickness. And then if we determine that we need to give an antibiotic, we'll follow that protocol to
figure out what we should give and how much to give. So that would include weighing the animal and
determining how much of an antibiotic that animal would require. We do that because we want the
animal to be healthy. you know, just like a human, if someone gets sick, we would treat them and
monitor them, hope that they get better.
---
DR. JOYCE VAN DONKERSGOED
So, for a healthy food supply, we need healthy animals going into the food supply. And so, it's critical for
both the safety of the food that these animals are healthy going in. That's a basic requirement. The
other thing producers like Ryan will do is every antibiotic we use, most of them have a meat withdrawal
period. So, for example, most vaccines have a 21-day meat withdrawal, which means after you vaccinate
an animal, you can't ship it to slaughter for food production for at least 21 days. With various
antimicrobials, those withdrawal periods could vary from one day all the way up to 60 days. It all
depends on the particular drug and how it's eliminated from the animal's body. The important thing is
that producers read the label for each product, whether it's a vaccine or an antimicrobial or a pesticide,
and they follow those meat withdrawal periods, or milk in the case of dairy cows before you ship the
animal to slaughter for food production. If producers don't adhere to meat withdrawal periods, there is
always the risk that if someone is very sensitive to the drug, for example, my dad was allergic to
penicillin. And so if he would consume a meat product that was contaminated with residues of penicillin,
he could potentially get an allergic reaction to it.
We call them violative drug residues, but these are residues that are higher than are permitted by
Health Canada Veterinary Drug Directorate. They determine meat withdrawal periods based on the
most sensitive individual to protect the public. So it is really important that producers follow those. If at
a slaughter plant, the inspectors, for example, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency, sees needle marks
like injection marks in a neck that look recent. So there's some hemorrhage around that needle mark.
They will actually pull that animal on a suspect line. They will take tissue samples from that neck
injection. They will send it to their lab in Saskatoon who will look for drug residues. And the carcass is
held till they get the results back. And if there are residues in that carcass that are not appropriate, the
whole carcass gets condemned. So it doesn't enter the food chain. And then there is a follow-up by the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency to the producer to say, what went wrong? Why did this animal enter
the food chain? And that producer is going to have to explain and put in place corrective actions that
that never happens again. Residues is only one part. The bigger issue is these superbugs.
__
NARRATION
For producers, having this process in place is a failsafe and in the rare occurrence where an investigation
needs to take place, it is extremely serious. Rest assured, no farmer wants to be questioned by the
Canadian Food Inspection Agency, and you’ll hear from Ryan, in a moment, how seriously producers
take their dispensing responsibility. First we head back to Joyce with more about bacteria resistance.
I think one of the concerns that the public and consumers are concerned about is the use of
antimicrobials in livestock, all livestock, and the possibility that we make bacteria in the livestock
resistant to particular antimicrobials. And then if people get exposed to those bacteria, either through
contaminated food or through contaminated water that they drink or potentially direct exposure to the
animals, like in a petting zoo or something. If that bacteria is resistant to an antimicrobial and you get
exposed to it, and usually it means through your digestive tract, so you've consumed it one way or the
other, that if that bacteria is a bacteria that can make you sick, then it'll be harder for the human
doctors to treat you with, say, they want to use the same antimicrobial that the bacteria is resistant to.
It may not work as well.
The other concern is bacteria are really smart, which is not good for us, but they like to share things. And
so if one bacteria is resistant to an antimicrobial, these little guys, they like to sometimes share that
genetic resistance with another bacteria. And so the concern is bacteria can share genetic resistance
elements, and that also can increase exposure, either of animals or humans, to other bacteria that
weren't initially resistant, but they picked up genetic elements of resistance from another bacteria. And
so that is another way you can pick up resistant bacteria. That's why it's important, you know, we only
use antimicrobials when we need to. We use them in either the right human or the right animal at the
right dose for the shortest duration possible. So kind of right bug for right drug at the right time, dose
frequency. So we need to work together collectively because at the end of the day, we call it One
Health. What happens in the human health sector can influence animal agriculture and vice versa. What
happens in animal agriculture can influence public health.
---
NARRATION
Part of the success we will find in combating antimicrobial resistance lies in the relationship between
veterinarians and cattle ranchers. Recognizing bad habits and improper distribution of antibiotics on the
individual level will have lasting effects industry-wide.
---
DR. JOYCE VAN DONKERSGOED
So as a veterinarian, the way we monitor antimicrobial use in our clients' herds is most veterinarians,
they prescribe the use of the antimicrobial to their clients. So, we have tracks of our veterinary
prescriptions. We have dispensing records. We also keep track of the volume. So as a vet, I can make a
prescription for a year for a large operation, say like a feedlot. But then we have so many refills that are
allowed in there, and we monitor the declining balances and then we have set controls in there. So, all
of a sudden, if there is more use than anticipated based on historical usage, we're investigating why that
is. And it is our responsibility to ensure proper use. And that goes all the way from training clients how
to diagnose disease and creating those treatment protocols as Ryan talked about, and then actually
monitoring that the feedlot staff are following those protocols.
---
RYAN KASKO
There's a few different ways that we monitor our use of antimicrobials. Number one is that we have a
relationship with a veterinary practice that is working with my team, if not daily, then at least weekly.
So, we have visits from veterinarians to come out and they're overseeing our treatments and educating
our staff on how to apply things properly and record things correctly. But just internally, all of the cattle
are brought to location where we have a computer system where we scan a national ID tag that's in the
animal's ear and we can identify which animal is in the squeeze at the time and we record which drug
and how much of the drug is being used and that's our main way to track the volume that we're using
and then that our veterinarian will oversee that when they come out and just make sure that everything
looks correct.
---
DR. JOYCE VAN DONKERSGOED
As a beef industry, as a feedlot industry, we have built a Canadian feedlot antimicrobial use and
resistance surveillance program led by the National Cattle Feeders Association, Alberta Cattle Feeders
Association, with Public Health Agency of Canada and the Beef Cattle Research Council. And so we
started that in early 2018, got funding for that with support from the federal government and provincial
government, Alberta government as well.
And so now we actually, participating vet clinics and participating producers, provide information to the
Public Health Agency or CPARs, a division of that. You know, around we selected lots of cattle on what
antimicrobials we're using and also in general what disease categories that use is for. So, there is a
program. It gives background information, you know, both to producers and veterinarians, but it is
publicly available on what are antimicrobials? Why do we use them? This is what we're seeing. This is
what we do to make sure we have responsible use. And then the Canadian Vet Medical Association also
has created guidelines that I've been involved with and led for the beef sector for veterinarians on
responsible use as well.
---
RYAN KASKO
For the farming population that might be listening today and when they think of their relationship with
the use of antimicrobials, that we have a responsibility to the public to share with them our production
practices. And so, people understand because I think a lot of people either don't think about it at all, or,
you know, if you were to ask general population what they think of the use of antimicrobials in livestock,
people would say, no, I'm totally opposed to that. That sounds terrible. But there really is an important
reason why we use it. And also, what our responsibilities are for good use of these tools to keep cattle
healthy and keep our food supply safe and healthy as well.
---
DR. JOYCE VAN DONKERSGOED
Antimicrobials, it is a privilege for us to use them. It isn't a right. And if we don't use them responsibly,
that privilege can be taken away. And we have seen that in Europe, where antimicrobials have been
taken away from the livestock industry. So... we just got to remember, you know, sometimes
governments can make political decisions. And we see this sometimes more in the US or in Europe,
where they take products away from producers and they forget about the health and welfare of the
animals. And animals are just like humans, they can get sick. And so, we need to be able to treat them.
We see less new antimicrobials being developed for livestock production in particular because of this
concern of antimicrobial resistance. And so that becomes an issue for us, which means as livestock
producing vets, what we currently have might be what we have only for many years. And so, they need
to continue to work. And that is only going to happen if we use them responsibly.
---
NARRATION
As we ’ve heard food safety starts with a healthy animal. Tune in for future episodes where we dig
deeper into how antimicrobials and other inputs affect the food we eat.
At the end of the day, we look to our resiliency within ourselves and our communities to make our
collective futures as bright as possible. All it will really take is conversations like these, some
vulnerability, and a little digging.
Thanks to the support of UFA Cooperative, we're able to share stories from those who live and breathe
agriculture. We'd like to thank our guests for sharing their insight into the future of agriculture and for
being with us today. For more information and a new episode every month, visit ufa.com. With listeners
like you, we'll continue to dig a little deeper here on Digging In with UFA. I'm Don Shafer. Thanks for
listening. Another Everything Podcasts production.
Visit everythingpodcasts.com, a division of Pattison Media. Subscribe wherever you get your podcasts.
DISCLAIMER
The views expressed in this podcast reflect opinions and perspectives from participating guests and not
necessarily those of UFA, UFA Co-operative's membership, elected officials or stakeholders.