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Young beef cattle are very susceptible to respiratory diseases in the first few weeks of fattening, resulting in the use of antibiotics. Two factors are known to increase the incidence of these diseases: (1) the distance travelled between the breeding and fattening farms, and (2) the mixing of animals of different origins during their passage through the sorting centres, which for the fattening farmers constitute batches of homogeneous animals based on weight criteria and not on origin or distance travelled. Two algorithms were developed by researchers from the Animal Health and MathNum departments of INRAE to optimise these two factors. They were then tested on a dataset from the Ter'elevage cooperative, which acts as an intermediary between breeders and fatteners. The results showed that optimising the choice of the sorting centre made it possible to substantially reduce the travel distances, particularly the longest ones. In addition, it was possible to compose batches of animals that minimised the diversity of their origins and thus greatly reduced the risks of cross-contamination between young cattle for fattening. These tools, which are publicly available, could help to reduce the use of antibiotics by fattening farmers. 

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