Last October, FDA issued a “Dear Veterinarian” letter that caught a lot of attention. The letter reminded veterinarians that aspirin and sodium salicylate are not approved for use in dairy cattle or any livestock.
“Repercussions from this letter throughout livestock and poultry veterinary groups have made veterinarians reassess the use of acetylsalicylic acid and sodium salicylate,” says Brian Payne, director of field R&D and technical service at Veterinary Pharmaceutical Solutions.
Through compounded drugs, veterinarians can use Meloxicam, another non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), in livestock and poultry because there is an FDA-approved Meloxicam product for humans for legal compounding, he explains.
“It’s internationally used everywhere else, really, except the U.S.,” Payne said during the American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting. “We compound the product so it can either go through the drinking water for pigs or be orally drenched for sows.”
For growing pigs, respiratory disease remains a problem and results in more stress on pigs.
“We found out that NSAIDs like Meloxicam have a positive benefit in these situations,” Payne says. “When you use it, they grow better, die less and you don’t have to add more antibiotics.”
Sows also go through stresses of parturition, and they also get sick, he points out.
“From an animal welfare standpoint, we know pigs go through pain. They have fevers and inflammation when they are sick. We can make them feel better with NSAIDs like we do in humans,” Payne says. “When you’re feeling sick, you want to feel better. Pigs under our care should have that opportunity as well. When they have pain, inflammation or a fever, we can reduce that down so they start feeling better. A secondary benefit is that they produce better.”
The ROI of Treating Pain
His company has been researching the applications and use of Meloxicam in different scenarios.
“We started with sows. In the U.S., people are not treating pain just to treat pain. There has to be a return on the investment for producers to do it, unlike Europe,” Payne says. “In sows, when it’s given around farrowing time after they’ve gone through parturition, is a decrease in inflammation benefiting her? If she’s feeling more comfortable, she will eat and drink more comfortably. One of our customer collaboration trials with vet student interns showed Meloxicam before and after farrowing, allowed sows to let down more colostrum, and those pigs actually took in more colostrum and were heavier.”
Reducing pain and inflammation in the sow resulted in a positive return on the piglets, he says. They also did a pain study on baby pigs that showed Meloxicam improved the welfare of pigs by reducing pain using a pain scale.
“Another one of our interns was using the water-soluble products, and she was able to show there was a statistical difference, a reduction in mortality, when pigs got flu or PRRS. Reducing the inflammation on the respiratory system during that time, they were able to have 17.1 more pigs per barn, or 1%, actually go to market,” Payne says. “We weren’t adding antibiotics. These were viruses, so we were just taking down the inflammation and hopefully keeping them on feed and water.”
Research Confirms Shorter Withdrawal Times
When it comes to withdrawal periods for compounded products, the veterinarian must determine the proper withdrawal period because it’s not FDA approved.
“The veterinarian can legally use it, but they have to write a prescription with a withdrawal period. A year ago at this meeting, the pharmaceutical committee asked me to run a study. We’ve run two studies now with pigs.”
The study showed the withdrawal period for sows receiving two doses of Meloxicam is 12 days versus the previous 28-day recommendation.
In the study with the growing pigs that received five times the concentration normally given for seven days, the withdrawal period is 17 days compared with 28 days.
“We believe that was important for the customer because now there are more opportunities to use it,” he says. “They don’t have to hold the sows as long if they need to cull them, and they can use it more in PRRS and flu cases closer to market.”
Payne emphasizes labeled drugs should always be used when needed. But he points out compounded drugs might be a useful tool.
“All of our products have come from asks from customers,” he says. “Nothing has been created that didn’t stem from a customer ask. We hope to bring these products to people to fill gaps in therapy.”
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