The Nordic countries have the lowest use of antibiotics in Europe and in the world. The reason is that the Nordic countries have a tradition of avoiding antibiotics as a preventative treatment against diseases. We have included health traits in our total merit index from the beginning. As a result, our cows need less antibiotics, because they have a natural defence against diseases in their genes. 

In the Nordic countries, we have a central database where veterinarians and hoof trimmers record all clinical diseases on each and every cow. By registering the actual incidence, instead of going for a correlated trait, the breeding values are much more reliable. For instance, in the Nordic countries we register clinical mastitis, while most countries use somatic cell score as an indicator. The correlation between somatic cell score and clinical mastitis is only 0.6, meaning it is not the same trait. The same goes for hoof health and the “feet & leg” index, where the correlation is only 0.25, meaning that you will only get better hoof health when relying on the feet & leg index in one in four cases.

While good management and improving the environment are important short-term solutions for health problems in your herd, genetics is an important long-term solution and it is effortless. You simply need to focus on important health traits as part of your breeding strategy, follow the plan and rely on NTM (Nordic Total Merit Index).