Household Animal and Human Medicine Use and Animal Husbandry Practices in Rural Bangladesh: Risk Factors for Emerging Zoonotic Disease and Antibiotic Resistance

Abstract

Animal antimicrobial use and husbandry practices increase risk of emerging zoonotic disease and antibiotic resistance. We surveyed 700 households to elicit information on human and animal medicine use and husbandry practices. Households that owned livestock (n = 265/459, 57.7%) reported using animal treatments 630 times during the previous 6 months; 57.6% obtained medicines, including antibiotics, from drug sellers. Government animal healthcare providers were rarely visited (9.7%), and respondents more often sought animal health care from pharmacies and village doctors (70.6% and 11.9%, respectively), citing the latter two as less costly and more successful based on past performance. Animal husbandry practices that could promote the transmission of microbes from animals to humans included the following: the proximity of chickens to humans (50.1% of households reported that the chickens slept in the bedroom); the shared use of natural bodies of water for human and animal bathing (78.3%); the use of livestock waste as fertilizer (60.9%); and gender roles that dictate that females are the primary caretakers of poultry and children (62.8%). In the absence of an effective animal healthcare system, villagers must depend on informal healthcare providers for treatment of their animals. Suboptimal use of antimicrobials coupled with unhygienic animal husbandry practices is an important risk factor for emerging zoonotic disease and resistant pathogens.

Keywords: Livestock; animal husbandry; antibiotic resistance; one health; emerging zoonotic disease; non-human antibiotic use.

Figure 1

Study framework of factors that influence the emergence of antibiotic resistance. There is a direct relationship between carriage of resistant bacteria and disease caused by that bacteria. An association between animal carriage and human carriage of AMR has been shown. Antibiotic use in humans and animals is associated with carriage of resistant bacteria. Known risk factors for the spread of AMR include household‐level variables (crowding, travel, proximity to clinics). Socio‐economic status (SES) is associated with these household variables and with antibiotic use. Provider practices influence antibiotic use, but SES can also influence providers' practices. This research was designed to obtain information on human‐ and animal‐level antibiotic use, related HH and SES variables and provider practices.