A mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis of antibiotic treatments for bovine respiratory disease.

In this publication we use mixed treatment comparison meta-analysis to compare the efficacy of antibiotic treatments for bovine respiratory disease in beef cattle. Studies were eligible for the meta-analysis if they were publically available and reported the assessment of antibiotic protocols registered for use in the United States (US) for bovine respiratory disease (BRD) in beef cattle and were conducted in North America. Three electronic databases, the proceedings of two bovine specific conferences, pharmaceutical company web sites and the US Food and Drug Administration website were searched to identify relevant trials. The network of evidence used in the analysis contained 194 trial arms from 93 trials. Of the 93 trials there were 8 with three arms. The network of evidence contained information for 12 antibiotics. The output from the analysis provided information about the risk ratio comparing all possible treatments for BRD including comparisons based only on indirect data. The output also included a relative ranking of the treatments and estimates of the probability that an antibiotic protocol was the worst treatment option.