Hi. So, I'm Fiona Lovatt. I'm a sheep vet.
I live up in the north of England, near Barnard Castle, somewhere, no, I know, I don't have to explain to anyone now where Barnard Castle is, because you'll all know, up near Durham in the middle of the hills. For the purposes of the Farm Bet Champions, I'm working for RCVS Knowledge, which is the charity partner to the RCVS. And, let me introduce you to Farm et Challenge, and I'm gonna start by that by talking generally, about antibiotics.
Now, you cannot fail to have been in the UK over the last 5 years and been a vet, and not thought about antibiotics. So you will all know rumour, responsible use of medicine in agriculture. And over the last, since 2016, RUMA have been producing targets for each of the species.
And we've got some really fantastic data out of that. So if you see on this graph, here, In 2015, for, in terms of MigGs per PCU, which is a measure of kilogrammes of animal body weight, we were using 56 MigGs per per kilogramme, across the country in, in terms of national sales figures. And we've reduced that to 2018.
We've virtually reduced it by half, 45% reduction. Massively impressive, fantastic. And if you're a farm vet, that's something that you could probably be quite proud of.
But I have to say, and you might have thought, well, you know, that's brilliant. We've reduced antibiotics by a massive amount. But I have to say most of that has been in the pig and poultry industry, because those are the industry where we have the data, we can evidence that.
We have national sales data, we have antibiotics which are sold for pigs, poultry. And arguably, there was historically quite a lot of antibiotics used in those sectors, and they have reduced very impressively. So, that's all brilliant.
You know, I, I am with you all in being really proud of what our agricultural industries have done with respect to reduction of antibiotics in our, in our industries over the last 4 or 5 years. But, and there is a but, because as a farm vet, I want to be personally involved in what's going on, and I want to know that for every single one of the farms that I work with. So, that's a kind of intro.
Let me just, tell you a bit about what I'm gonna cover in this webinar. I'm talking about antibiotic usage from a, from the perspective of the rumour targets, and those figures I put in that last slide, you'll all be aware of those sort of headline figures. But what are the challenges that we actually face as farm vets?
What faces you as you go out onto farm tomorrow, you're speaking to a difficult farmer, and you're talking to him about how he's using antibiotics in his calves or in his lambs or whatever it is. You know, so we, we want I want to discuss the challenges that you personally face, and then we can talk about the concept behind the Farm vet champions. So, I'm going to talk about the plan prevent, protect principles, and then the training modules that we've got for the Farm vet champions.
And most importantly, how can you personally get involved? So back to rumour, back to the, to the targets, and you might have seen this, so the poultry meat, and I mean this does look incredibly impressive. Over between 2012 and 2017.
Poultry meat production rose by 10%. Poultry antibiotic use decreased by 82%. Now, there's two ways you can look at that.
There's a bit of me that thinks, crikey, things were really, really bad, that we could reduce by 82%. So, there's a bit of me that's slightly embarrassed. We, we didn't get onto it quickly.
But to be fair, you know, if you hear radio interviews from health professionals 20 years ago, people, none of us were properly thinking time might be ticking as far as antibiotics go. I have to say, Louis Pasteur probably he did, he did, Register it. He said, we can't keep using these, we can't be flippant with it.
But, but actually, in terms of medical professionals, veterinary professionals, if you, if you wind back 2030 years, we were not thinking the time is gonna run out. But anyway, those really impressive figures and those sectors, these sectors over here. So this is an illustration that's in the, the, the rumour, .
Target document, and they basically looked at the different sectors, and poultry meat and fish meat, very, very integrated, large sectors, but actually very few vets work with very few producers, and it's a very tightly aligned thing. And even pigs come into that to quite a degree. There are about commercially, 3000 pig units, big pig units.
There are, there are far, far more smaller pig units, the very, very, very small numbers. But the vast majority, a good 90. Percent of pig, pork is via these big producers, and that's, I think it's something like 70 pig vets, very, very closely aligned.
So, if you talk to those 70 vets, get them on board, and they're talking to those small numbers of producers, they can actually, get themselves sorted quite quickly. If you come across to these other sectors, Whether that's ruminants, cattle, sheep, and, and actually, game birds, a big sector, really, really, not, it's not integrated. A lot of game birds are dealt with individual private practises, vet practises that probably do not specialise in game bird production.
You, yourself, might have a, an estate as part of your practise. You, you might be asked to, to put write a prescription for a load of pheasants. You don't deal with pheasants every day of the week, but that estate is part of your practise.
And whether you're a specialist in game birds or not, you may have written pre prescriptions for game birds. So, over this side of the, the graph, we've got the less integrated sectors, potentially smaller units, and potentially in the hands of the general practitioner. Fewer vets who are species specific, you know, a lot of us, in, well, in terms of sheep, there are literally a couple of us who just do sheep.
We are well aware that the vast majority of sheep in this country are dealt with by. General practise vets who, and their primary concern are either the cattle that they're dealing with, or the companion animals or whatever else within their practise. There are literally 2 or 3 of us for whom sheep is our thing.
We know that 70% of, beef, sheep farms are beef farms as well, and it's probably actually higher than that. But in, in data sets, I've, we've been working with, when we are sheep farmers what other animals they have, at at least 70% also have, beef cattle on the farm. And as you well know, a bottle of oxitetetracycline.
It might leave your practise to be given to cars with pneumonia. It might get on farm and be given to sheep with foot rot. You may not know what's actually happened with it once it's got on farm.
So those mixed species are quite complicated to deal with. And it's actually, we know in these texts, it's difficult to get data. It's difficult to work out exactly what antibiotics are being used.
And, and we don't have a huge number of antibiotics, which we can tell at a national sales level of what our usage is. So then we're down to individual vets practises. And golly, we all have different, computer systems.
I've done a quick straw poll of a few sheep vets, and, just, so there, there are probably 60% of people use one computer system, and the other 40% use all sorts of random things and don't even necessarily have, exact names of drugs go in. It might be that receptionist has put drugs in with a spelling mistake in. We can, we can't track that sort of data.
So there are challenges. We have massive challenges at the point of the practise, and we have even greater challenges when we go on to all the individual farms and look at usage. You know, we, we're not, we're not short of issues, and then we also have, we know we've got about 70,000 sheep farmers in the UK, .
But by the time you've gotten beef and cattle farms, you know, that's a huge number of different farms. Dealt with with a large number of different vets, and we all have our own ideas about how we do things. We're, we're nothing like the handful of poultry vets who deal with a handful of poultry producers.
You know, it's a completely different picture. And that's where we're coming with. So, as you, as you, as you, as we identify the challenges within the ruminant sector, lots of small producers.
Lots and lots of vet practises. In fact, 5500 vets in the UK are registered with the RCVS for treating farm animals. 5500 farm vets in the UK.
And as you well know, all of us are completely unique. You know, you might be. With a Welsh sheep farmer lambing on the side of a mountain in Wales, you might be dealing with Devonshire dairy cow, you know, a sheep producer in Devon or Cheshire, somebody producing Aberdeen Angus beef.
Any one of those farms may also rear 50 turkeys for Christmas. They might sell eggs at the farm gate, and they might states involved as well with game birds. And I'm totally aware that there are vets, you know, you're out there and you might be dealing with any one of those situations.
You're not in any way a specialist vet. You're asked to deal with all those different species and to know what is good practise, what's the best to do. And, and we also know that there are plenty of those sectors.
Probably sheep and beef right up there for actually pretty small or limited contact with veterinary professionals. You know, if you can get onto a sheep farm. On an annual basis, you're doing well, and I'm, I'm well aware there are sheep farms which who have not seen a vet for, for quite a while, and they still come into your practise, and they still want their bottle of amoxifen for lambing or whatever it is, and you still feel you ought to because they're your client.
Even though you haven't actually been there for a while, but you know, the economics and we all have the excuses and and and this isn't, you know, I know what it's like, and it's difficult for the farmers and it's difficult for all of us in practise to deal with those situations. The way this graph, this picture, it's in the, it's in the rumoured target it's a slightly different form. But basically, as we've looked at the challenges within the ruminant sector, so cattle and sheep particularly, .
The, the challenges are both engagement. So, unless you can say, yes, I have a herd health plan for every one of my beef farmers. I have a flock plan for all my sheep farmers.
I know exactly what they're doing, when they're doing it, how they're doing it. I've put preventative measures in place. I, I, I don't believe you can do that for every one of your farms.
And if you can, that is absolutely fantastic. And please come and share your, case studies with us, because, we really want to champion people who have got good preventative things in place. The reality is, for the majority of us, there are large numbers of farms where we struggle with preventative health plans in advance.
And that's sort of a bit where we're coming with an engagement. We're also struggling with the data capture, and I've spoken about the challenges already. And, we have got the HDB medicine hub coming online literally within the next month.
And that will be helpful. But as I've already spoken about, we have challenges of different farmers using different software, different, you know, how many medicine books have you looked at, and the ink is dry because they filled it in last night, because they knew you were gonna check it. Or, you know, there's, and how many medicine, administrations did actually.
Forget to put in, at the time, or they're out in the middle of the fell, and they're treating a sheep or, a, a suckler cow, and they, they haven't, got a piece of dry paper or a pen to write down what's happened, and it, it gets a bit missed. You know, we've all got the challenges, and that's, and we also have those challenges from our vets practises to get data across. So, it's a huge challenge, data capture, and, but we are working on it.
But then this is, the bottom box, this whole circle here is actually the combination of health and welfare and responsible use. So, can we, you've, you've probably seen the graphs of usage on, usage on cattle farms, uses on sheep farms, where we have a few really high users, and then, but it goes down quite quickly. And the vast majority of farmers are not using a huge amount of antibiotics.
A lot of them are hardly using any at all. There's a really big tail. Actually, if we can identify those handful of farms who are really high users, and maybe, and there are some years where that's a very good reason.
They have an outbreak of disease. They, they need to be a high user in certain years. If they're persistently a high user, year on year, then we do have a problem, and we probably need to do something about that.
But can we identify those and can we work with those specific, specific people? Can we work with people who are routinely prophylactically treating whole herds, whole flocks, for whatever reason? That's a lot of antibiotics to a lot of healthy animals.
Actually, if it's neonatal lambs, it's a small amount of antibiotics, but it's to a heck of a lot of animals. That's one thing that really worries me, that, you know, there's suddenly a Daily Mail report about the numbers of neonatal lambs given routine prophylactic antibiotics. It's totally indefensible.
And as, as you'll know, it's something we are all working on. And it's a long, long process to get to all the vets, to get to all the farmers, and actually to work alongside people and put other measures in place, sort out clostrum, whatever it is. Are people risk aware purchasing, you know, we have, if you compare us to pig and poultry, where they have really, really good biosecurity, how many times have you, or, you know, you couldn't visit a, a pig farm because you had been on a separate pig farm.
A few days before. So, apart from showering in and sharing out, no other, pig unit within the last 48 hours. You know, that is completely alien to most of our cattle, sheep, most of our mixed farmers.
And buying in animals is just the same. So, a very secure pig or poach unit, they are absolutely aware of what they buy in from other farms. They have a completely secure unit.
And what a contrast when we look at our, our general mixed farms. So, yes, we want to reduce high priority, critically important antibiotics. Yes, we want to to target key health and welfare things.
This is not about reducing antibiotics. This is about having healthy animals and sorting everything out to ensure that animals are healthy. And then we can indicate progress.
So those are, these are, rumour identified, where are the issues in the ruminant sector and what can we do about it. And out of that, we come to the Farm vet champions. So this is a new project, it's led by RCVS Knowledge.
Which has a, a reputation for really high quality, materials, training materials, it's a charity arm of, of the RCBS. And the farm vet champion, so the RCVS knowledge have grasped the. Concept and gone to, the VMD have provided funding for phase one.
I'll I'll talk about phase one and phase two of the projects. But, so we sort of started with the whole idea back in the summer. Talking to a number of different people, and in the last couple of months, we've got the funding and we're all systems go.
So we, in phase one, there's there will be free CPD. With modules for the whole range of food producing animals that I've already spoken about. As a mixed farm vet, any one of those species that you might come across, there should be a module in the Farm vet champions that you can access.
We'll be looking at good practise, antimicrobial stewardship. I it's always good, I always like to say best practise, but actually, none of us know what best practise is. Hopefully, we're getting better.
All the time. So we're going for good practise, antimicrobial stewardship. And then we've got modules on communication skills, behaviour change.
Why are why do farmers act like they do? Why do vets act like they do? Why do, why do we do what we do?
And how can we potentially put things in place to improve that or change that? So, we're gonna have modules on all those things, and, it's, so the VMD have funded this first phase, and, all those will be free to access CPD. If you want, if you want to find out more, there's there, and I, I'll put it again at the end.
so I'm just going into a bit of a detail on this, I suppose. There's a farm vet champion, we're aiming this at all the UK veterinary practitioners. If you have anything to do with food producing animals, even Mrs.
Smith, who lives down the road and has a couple of laying hens. Otherwise, you're a small animal vet. This is, this is for you because those laying hens are food producers.
So the there's, we're aiming it at everyone, even if you're a specialist, and you only deal with a certain species specific area. I can probably guarantee there'll be the odd weekend you're on call, and you're called by somebody about their pet pig, or, or some estate about their game birds, or somebody's rearing turkeys for Christmas, and you are the veterinary professional. It may not be your specialism, but you're the person who has to find the answer.
Well, we're hoping within the Farm vet champion, the answers will be there for the key, antimicrobial stewardship aspects. So we're looking at species specific, absolute need to know stuff on the responsible use of medicines, specifically responsible use of antibiotics, although we may expand it as we go on. .
And then we're, we're recording presentations. We're dealing with all the, veterinary specialist associations associated with the BVA, and so we've got species specific modules for cattle, sheep, goats, pigs. Particularly thinking non-commercial pigs.
And then birds laying, laying hens, turkeys, game birds. But we're also looking at empowerment and behaviour skills, and farmer understanding compliance, and how, as a vet, you can work on that. We've got a steering group up and running, with people representing all those species, and, those species, Associations are responsible.
So, for example, BCVA have got 3 separate people responsible for producing the, a module on, which is a mole and a module is a, is a specific sort of webinar on dairy cows, on suckler cows, and on young stock. So there are 3 separate ones for cattle. But they're all sorted by someone within BCVA, peer-reviewed by someone else within BCVA, and then peer reviewed again by someone, else on the steering group, or, or from RBS Knowledge.
So, this is phase one. That's all, funded, and it has to be all sorted by the end of March. Yes, that's the that's next month.
The end of next month. All these modules will be up and, accessible to anyone who's signed up as a farm bet champion. And then I'll just quickly talk about phase two, for which we don't yet have funding.
This is an aspiration, and it will come after March. We're concentrating very much at the moment on getting the modules out there. Phase two is, is basically, we want people, this is not just about attending training, it's about setting objectives.
Setting goals and, and they're smart objectives. So, they're specific and measurable. They're achievable within a realistic time frame.
And we're, we're encouraging people to, to be, quite precise about the goals they set. I can talk about goals again. We'll, we're, we're basically The farm vet champions are a com a community of farm vets.
If you sign up to be a champion, not only will you be supported in the areas that you're interested in, or that your practise wants you to, to develop, or that you personally want to develop, and then we'll encourage you to, to set goals and achieve those goals and set further goals. but as I say, the goal setting is in the future. The current thing we're dealing with is the CPD.
And, and when we do set those goals, there'll be a chance to be doing it on a personal level. What's my goal? How do, what do I want to achieve?
And, but also, can I work with other people within my practise to be setting goals for our practise to achieve, where we can get to. So, your personal goals will only be viewable by yourself, and if you move practises or you go on maternity leave, or you, whatever you do, your personal goals are still accessible just by you. Your practise goals, you will link into the practise goals, that's all in the future, you know, to, to be decided, for the moment we're concentrating on the modules.
Farmbe Champions are not designed in any way to replace all the stuff that's already going on out there. So if you're already linked to something, don't throw that away, and we are certainly not in any way trying to replicate stuff. So I've just, for an example, put the BVA responsible use of microbials in veterinary practise and their seven point plan, and And I just kind of, so working with clients to avoid the need of antimicrobials is.
Almost, in my opinion, the most important thing. If we can work from a, from the start about avoiding the need, then we don't, we're not working at the detail of, oh, what antibiotics should I use for this condition. We're actually much more holistically, way back from that thinking, big picture, can we have sorted something else about the environment or whatever to avoid the need and the start?
But otherwise, everything, you know, I'm not, all of this is absolutely, you know, you, you do need to avoid inappropriate use. You need the right drug for the right bug. You need to be monitoring antimicrobial sensitivity and minimising use.
You need to be recording and justifying what you're doing, and you need to report, suspect treatment failures. Be are one of our, close partners collaboration. They've been involved with the Farm Bet champions right from the foundation.
They're very much key members of the steering group and a part of it. And, and where there's some really good material that's already there, such as a seven point plan, what we're doing is signposting people to that. We, we're not trying to replace anything that anyone has.
Already done or is already doing, this is not about that in any way. So, you know, do, do, if you're a BBA member, access that and, and, and work to that as well. And, and, and, and it may be that, you know, that's can be having, having that poster up in your practise could be one of your goals.
That's, you know, we're, we're all in this together, and there's no, there's no competition involved. So, I've already said about this holistic approach, and that's where we're coming from, the Farm vet champions. Plan, plan ahead, prevent, and protect.
So, plan ahead is, most importantly, be involved with your vet. So that vet engagement is hugely important. Make sure the animals are eating the right diet, or living in the right conditions.
The, the, the farmer has a plan. The vet is involved in that plan. The farmer is keeping records, and we're encouraging to use them to make good decisions.
So, the plan ahead is quite key for the whole preventative, measure. And, and I don't mean a 56 page document that sits on the shelf and his, his flock health plan or health plan. I mean that he's actively planning ahead and he's in a relationship, an active relationship with you as his vet to what's, what's happening on the farm.
Then prevent disease, you know, . The environment, make sure it's sheltered, clean, well bedded, make sure any equipment uses hygienic, appropriate, i.e., do whatever you can to reduce whatever cha disease challenge there is.
It, it's . It's kind of basic, but it's also, it's also so fundamental. You know, if, if we sorted that for the calves in the shed and the ventilation was right from the start, we might not have to, to, to turn to the antibiotics, for example.
So prevent disease and, and protect the flock. So, are the vaccinations up to date? What are the appropriate vaccinations?
Is there an appropriate vaccination? That if those animals were vaccinated, we wouldn't be thinking, oh, now we have to turn to some antibiotics. So, and protect the flock, and in terms of neonates, it's actually protect the neonatal lambs or calves by making sure that Clostrum is good quality and they receive it correct quantity and quickly enough, that is, the most important way to protect a lamb, for example, and, and not have to be giving it antibiotics.
So, . I'm, I'm well aware that I always have to turn to a sheep example. And it's not because I think sheep are the most important, it's because sheep's what I know about, so I can speak with more authority on sheep.
So, apologies for sheep example. But I just, just an example of plan, prevent, protect. So, you know, a, a shepherd, instead of Just turning to a bottle of spectam and dosing every lamb with an antibiotic, the shepherd plans ahead, he analyses the forage, he sorts it out, he makes sure his records are right.
We prevent infections. So, if they're outside, we make sure there's sufficient shelter. If they're inside, we make sure that they, they're clean and dry and well bedded.
We make sure the stomach tube's been sterilised, that, the ear taggers are, are not coming off a dusty shelf and then injecting streptoscoactia into the bloodstream. You know, we're, we're preventing problems by making sure we're reducing the challenge. We're, we're basically making sure we're really Up to with good hygiene.
And then we're protecting the flock by making sure those lambs are full of good quality lostrum. And we do that by making sure the ewes are fit and well fed. They're the good, the correct body condition score, they're fully vaccinated.
They're not dirty, they're not lame. And they've basically got good energy and protein. Because he's planned ahead and he's sorted their diet, that they, they've got good Clostrum, and the lambs have every fighting chance.
So, at risk of giving you another sheep example, for again, I apologise. But enzootic abortion is another thing in sheep. I'm not going to go through this in massive detail, but just to show you that one of the inappropriate ways we use antibiotics within the sheep industry is there are still sheep farmers, sadly, who think the way to control enzootic abortion is to inject every e with an oxytracycline 4 weeks before they're due to land.
Now, we know there are areas of the country, and there will be vets listening to this who are horrified that that still goes on, because, you know, we I know, I, I know locally, we haven't had farmers, routinely using ox cycling in late pregnancy for probably the last 15 years. But there are still pockets of the country where that is perfectly what everyone does, or wants to do. And their vet is prescribing the Oxitecture cycling to allow them to do that.
So, So if Enzo abortion, we put exactly the same measures in place. We plan ahead, we work out where we're sourcing our ewes from. We're making sure we don't mix pregnant ewes, for example.
We, we, we're putting good practises in place. The farmer knows what he's doing, the vet has worked with them. We are not planning to routinely use prophylactic antibiotics.
It is acceptable if we have an a diagnosis, either this year or last year of antibiotic abortion. It's quite acceptable for a vet to decide antibiotics are an appropriate thing to do this year. What is not acceptable is for a farmer to do it routinely year on year on year because he hasn't been a, you know, he doesn't know that there are better things to do.
Preventing infection, you know, all the classic stuff, isolating aborting animals, removing debris, proper disease control, reducing the challenge and the possibility that further ewes will be infected. And then, I mean, it's a brilliant example because you, you know, the, the key, the best way to protect the flock is there, there are . Very good, vaccinations.
But to, to vaccinate, we have to have planned ahead. We had to do that before the tucks went in, before they were breeding. It's something that, yeah, protection is the right thing, but we need to plan to do that.
So, and, I mean, with a sheep, I can do plan, prevent, protect for, to prevent lameness, to prevent pneumonia, to what whatever those aspects are. And, but that's where we're coming up with a farm vet. Champions.
We're using plan, prevent, protect, to think about it from a holistic way. It's not just, oh, which antibiotics should we turn to for this condition? How much do we give, what's the dose.
It, it's sort of way back before that in a holistic way. So, to go back, I, I'm, I'm moving off sheep again now for anyone who, who phased out there for the, the sheep bit. Basically, for the Farmbet champions, we've got general modules, which we think will be of interest to anyone.
So, Tim Nuttall from Edinburgh is talking about general AMR principles. He's talking about biomes and, dysbiosis, you know, maybe there's a bacteria involved, but maybe actually using antibiotics is not the appropriate thing. But, you know, we're thinking the environment and the whole biome, so it's sort of Bigger picture, principles, and but also he's looking at the mechanisms for the development of resistance.
Pam Mosalle from RTVS Knowledge, and who's also worked with the practise Standards scheme, is looking at the legalities of prescribing. I, I darn't say it, but Pam said it's the essential, the boring but essential. It won't be boring.
I know it won't be boring, but it is essential. And actually, how many of us. Could be kept up to date on, on what our legal responsibilities are.
Are we doing what we should be? Are we labelling things correctly? Are we using the cascade correctly?
It's a kind of absolute need to know, presented in a way that you think, yeah, that's good. I need to know that. Fraser Broadford, so the VMD have have supported this whole programme for phase one.
So he's looking at the whole UK strategy, how we looking at focus on sales and usage, how we categorise antibiotics, what, why is a high, high priority critically important as it is, the, European Medicine Agency have just re-categorized them in the last year or so. So what definitions are we using? Why are we using them, and then what are our key benchmarking metrics?
And then we've got some other just really interesting modules on one, health and resistance monitoring, the human health viewpoint, and then, overall presentations on the UK strategy. So, so what the strategy is in Scotland, differs a bit. From Wales and, maybe from England.
So, and Northern Ireland, we've got basically somebody from each of those devolved administrations talking about the specifics, for, for those areas. And as a farm vet champion, you will be, invited to access whichever one of these you're interested in. You can, you know, they're all free to, they're all free to access and, they're available to anyone.
We then got species specific modules, which I've said are being specifically developed by the relevant associations. So, we've got dairy cow, suckler hers and young stock in the cattle, 3 separate modules. There's a sheep module, there's a goat module.
Goat, goats always get left out a bit because, because they don't come into rumour targets. And, and they don't, and goats are not part of the levee board. So, so we're kind of feeling a bit for the goats.
Goat vets are are also well aware that there are not specialist goat vets. There are specialist goat vets, but there's no, as far as we know, there's no one who just does goats. But there are probably a lot of you who may have one herd or might might have to prescribe antibiotics to goats.
Well, you know, the goat module will let you know what they consider good practises, and their key areas. Small scale pig, units, and then We've got British Veterinary Poultry Association doing a module on game birds, a module on laying hens, and a module on turkeys. So if you've got an Eddie Grundy within your practise, and, you know, 30 turkeys ready for Christmas, you may not deal with any other birds except those you're expected to prescribe for those 30 odd turkeys.
Well, what is, what is good practise, you can turn to the turkey module. And then oh, I said I'd finish with sheep. I'm just quickly going back to sheep, so apologies.
Just as an example, the learning objectives for the sheep. So, we're being very specific with our learning objectives in each module. We're not, we don't want any of you to be bored with the theory.
What we want to do is give you something that you can take back to farm, your, your farms, your conversations with your clients tomorrow or next week. So, so, for example, within the sheet module, you'll be able to define the key areas where we think there's a risk of inappropriate use. So the, the hotspots within sheep, we and explain the plan prevent protect principles for each of those practises.
So I've shown you two of them, neonatal lands and endotic abortion. We've got similar plan prevent protect modules for, for lameness in sheep, for, any, any, the, the key areas we think there's inappropriate use, explaining what the plan prevent, protect principles could be for that animal, for that area. And then you will also be able to know how to establish those principles for direct application as you speak to a sheep farmer tomorrow.
So, it's all very well telling you what best practise is, good practises. But actually, are there some tools that could help you when, when he comes in, he says, Can I order my 25 bottles of spectre, that you're thinking, Hang on a minute. We're, we're, we're ahead of you, and we're talking that through are some specific tools you can use rather than being caught on the back foot.
And then also, a key bit is how do we calculate and compare usage for the flocks that you're in charge of. And then, . So, as a, once again, I've gone to what I know, and that's why I've given you a sheep example.
But, but we can translate those into, into the goats, into cattle young stock, into dairy cows. Whatever, whatever the module is, there will be species specific. And we've asked the associations who are writing those modules to come up with the learning objectives that they feel are important.
So, we've asked them to identify the audience, The general audience is every vet in the UK who treats food producing animals. But each species group is aware of, you know, may, may slightly want to tailor their audience slightly differently. And, they put, and they put all that as in their modules and with their learning objectives.
So, so they are useful, and they will be relevant to people, who are dealing with that animal, that species, in, in whatever circumstance. So that's a species, so the general models, the species specific modules, and then, the communication and behaviour change modules, and we're doing this as sort of 10 to 15 minute presentations with a number of different voices. So we've got involved with some key People who are involved with behaviour change, farmer behaviour, and farmer communications, and we'll have a a section on motivational interviewing, which Alison Baird, her PhD was specifically looking motivational interviewing with dairy farmers, so she's doing us a section on motivation interviews.
The, beg your pardon, the the combi model, so, we know that for behaviour change, farmers. Need we need capability, opportunity and motiva and motivation to change that behaviour. And so it's looking at, it's looking at why people do what they do, what might be the barriers to prevent them changing, and how we might be able to work with that.
So, these, these modules, it's a kind of a bit of a smorgasbord of different, presentations that you can sort of pick and choose from, but, but they're pulled to And, and once again, we've really asked the people who are putting these together that what we want is directly applicable learning that has an immediate message that you can take back on farm tomorrow, next week, next month, or take back into the practise, or basically something that you can say, yes, I need to, I need to act on this and do whatever. So, those are the training modules. And then, the final thing, this bit's not yet funded, so watch this space.
I'll put that as an immediate. If you remember that first diagram I put up of the from the rumours, the, the engagement, data and responsible use targets. So this is for goal setting.
I've divided this down into engagement, data and responsible use. And we're going to encourage people to be setting both personal goals and practise goals. this is, this is to come, this is not something for now, but hopefully it will be in place.
6 months' time, or whatever. So, just as an example, one of your goals, one of your personal goals might be to undertake the training. You might say, yes, I'm interested in this model, this model, and this model, and I'm going to undertake that training by the end of April, or whatever it is.
But, you, what we, what we're hoping to do, and I'd stress again, this is not yet funded. This is something that's an aspiration. But it's actually for you to set personal goals and to track that.
And then when it gets to the end of April, come back to you and say, Oh, you set that goal. And you can, so for every goal you set, you're encouraged to be specific, what it is you're measuring, when you expect to do it. And when the allotted time period comes back, you get an alert that says, Have you done that goal?
Are you working on it? Is it finished? And you get a chance to say, Oh, yes, I've, I've achieved that, and here's the evidence.
I've ticked those boxes. Or, actually, I can't do that goal anymore. I want to modify it.
Or actually, I want to completely ditch that goal, but I'm gonna go for this goal. So, there's something that's a bit accountable to, to, Keep you on track. I mean it may be that in your practise goals, well, one of your first goals might be a commitment within your practise for you to divide, when you, you know, to have people with a specific beef, beef unit or sheep unit, and you, and you sell the antibiotics specifically for that, for that enterprise, so that you don't have this mix between beef and sheep antibiotics, for example.
But you have separated them, and that you can then keep better control of your data. That might be something that you personally can't work on, but you have to work with other people within the practise, and your practise might decide that's a good goal. And both you can, you can see that goal, and so can other members of your practise, so that you're not resetting the, you're not resetting from the start each time.
You're both, you're all working for the same goals. And then there may be some goals that actually, are relevant for either personal, you might be, you want to reduce routine prophylaxis, you might want to stop some of your sheep farmers. Giving, oral spec in the mice into all their lambs.
So, can you personally identify and target which farms you want to tackle this issue with? Which farms, what date? Can you do that in time for lambing?
Probably not this year. But, you know, but actually, I've spoken with a lot of sheep farmers in the last few weeks, and, and a lot of vets are already well on with it. And sheep farmers, oh, I used to do this, I don't anymore.
So, You know, people, people are making massive progress, and we're not in any way suggesting that you're not already on this. What we're trying to do is give people an option to actually track it and see where they're going. And that might be a personal goal, it might be a practise goal.
And you can work with colleagues, or you can, or you can work by yourself with it, you know, there is, there are, there are kind of no rules. Well, there are rules, but, we're very, very flexible. So, so just to end, and in summary, the Farmbet, so we're going to end up with 16 free to access CPD modules, that, if you've signed up as a, as a champion, those will be available, from the end of March, and you can access those and, and watch them, and, it's so it's a combination of watching and .
Other learning techniques, so we'll we'll break them down to some degree, but in the sort of rawest sense, you'll be watching webinars, but there's there's a combination of sort of learning. Techniques there. There will, there .
There's no limit to the number of farm vet champions in the practise. Actually, as I say that, it's just reminded me what I didn't say previously was there's a fantastic project going on in Wales, and it has been going on for the last year or so, the Arwy vet Cyri scheme. And we used that as a model, and we're working really closely with them, and Gwen Rees, who runs that project, .
This is not replacing that. It's just, it's building on what they've learned from our vet Camry. If you are a vet in Wales who's part of that project, you're more than welcome to join up as a farm vet champion, and, you know, we're not, we're not trying to, we're just making it something more available across the UK.
OK. But this is the difference is, I think that's 11 prescribing champion per practise or something. There's no limit to how many farm bet champions you can have in practise, on this scheme.
You can sign up, your colleagues can sign up, your, you know, your boss, new graduate, we, we can. We, we're welcoming anyone, and, and that's partly because you've got your own personal goals, but you've also got your practise goals. And we're all, we're basically building a community of those of us who really care about, antimicrobial stewardship, and want to support and encourage, each other, and that's a whole part of it.
So, we've got, We've got over 100 people registered so far. It, as I say, it's, it's all yet to come. If you register now, there isn't currently training available there.
That's all being made at the moment. So, you know, please do sign up. What the people who've signed up so far, we're going to encourage them to watch the webinars live and, and be a part, you know, as soon as you sign up, you're a part of it.
But it's a work in progress. So bear with us, it's. It's, you know, it's coming along, and, the training will be there.
And some of the, and some of the goal setting, you know, that is not, that is in the future. But that's what we're aspiring to. And, I have every confidence that we'll get there.
We'll just, but we'll, but the more, every time someone signs up, that is so encouraging to know that there are a lot of you out there who really do want to, you know, be putting best practise into place. And, and to kind of join the. Join the wave as it were.
So, yeah, sign up now and, and be the change that that you want to see within farm animal practise. You know, we've we've got fantastic stories. There's brilliant case studies out there of people who have really made a difference, within their own practise.
On certain farms, and this is, this is not about saying, you know, this is something different. It's absolutely championing what you're already doing and helping you and supporting you and all of us supporting each other to to To do better, to do more, to to spread the word. my personal view is, until I'm convinced every one of the sheep farmers I have contact with, or every one of my clients or every sheep farmer I speak to.
Until I know that they are putting good practise in place on their farm, then I haven't quite done enough. So, yeah, how good you are, please still join us. I'm quite sure there's always, there's always more we can do, and there's no room for complacency.
And we would love to hear your stories and to have you join us and be a part of it. So, you know, don't hold back. It's, it's, it's gonna be an interesting journey together, and I'm really looking forward to it.
You can probably tell. I'm quite excited about it, because, I think it's something, it's something for you as a vet out there on farm, in your day to day. It's not about national data or, or figures that you can't control.
It's stuff that, that you are responsible for, and the, and the farmers you are working with. And, yeah, let's, let's move on together. So, thanks for listening.
Really great. And, Yeah, I look forward to seeing your name on the sheet. The, earl is there, RBSKnowledge.org, Farm Bet champions.
Thank you.