As more of a biopharma company, Merck Animal Health is always focused on the wellbeing of livestock. Recently, Merck has taken that goal even further by placing a greater emphasis on creating new technologies that can detect illnesses in advance and allow farmers to use less medication on their animals. This may seem counterintuitive for a company like Merck, but Dr. Tim Parks, technical services manager with Merck Animal Health, said these two aspects combine in their goal to maximize animal health.
Parks said the early detection technology aims to prevent diseases from becoming an issue in livestock herds in the first place and reduce antibiotic usage.
With cattle, bovine respiratory disease (BRD) is one of the main illnesses that producers have to worry about. When handling the disease, Parks said they focus on using all of their tools to either prevent the disease or reduce its severity.
For more information, visit https://www.merck-animal-health-usa.com/species/cattle.
