Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 Feb 9:2:5.
doi: 10.1186/s40813-016-0024-3. eCollection 2016.

Risk factors for oral antimicrobial consumption in Swiss fattening pig farms - a case-control study

Corinne Arnold  1 , Gertraud Schüpbach-Regula  2 , Patricia Hirsiger  3 , Julia Malik  3 , Patricia Scheer  1 , Xaver Sidler  3 , Peter Spring  4 , Judith Peter-Egli  4 , Myriam Harisberger  1
Affiliations

Risk factors for oral antimicrobial consumption in Swiss fattening pig farms - a case-control study

Corinne Arnold et al. Porcine Health Manag. .

Abstract

Background: Antimicrobial consumption in veterinary medicine is of great importance. Increased awareness by the public and media has led to demands for decreased use of antimicrobials in pigs. This study aimed to identify risk factors for regular oral antimicrobial consumption in Swiss fattening pig farms, and to quantify the amount of antimicrobial active substances administered orally to pigs at the farm level.

Results: A case-control study was performed on 99 fattening farms between May 2014 and January 2015. Seventy-two case farms (with oral group treatment of antimicrobials in at least 50 % of pigs) and 27 control farms (with no regular oral group treatment) were visited once during the study. Data about potential risk factors and antimicrobial consumption were collected by questionnaire. Antimicrobial consumption was recorded and treatment incidence (TI) was calculated for all farms over a one year period. Sulphonamides and tetracyclines were the antimicrobials consumed in the greatest quantity. The median TI for oral antimicrobial use in the case group was 224.7. In the control group, the median TI was 0 for oral antimicrobial use, with values ranging from 0 to 140.1. In a multivariable regression model, seven risk factors associated with regular oral antimicrobial group treatment were identified: mixing pigs from different suppliers within the same pen, absence of a work protocol that ensures treating of healthy pigs before sick pigs, distance to next pig farm < 500 metres, external analysis of production parameters, no availability of dirty visitor boots, the farmer not working on other farms, and no application of homoeopathic agents.

Conclusions: The results of this study point out the importance of increasing farmers' awareness of good farming practices and biosecurity. Important recommendations for decreasing oral antimicrobial consumption identified by this study include avoiding mixing pigs from different suppliers in the same pen and strictly handling sick pigs after healthy ones. Improvements in these areas could enhance the overall health of pigs and thereby reduce the consumption of antimicrobials on pig farms.

Keywords: Antimicrobial consumption; Fattening farms; Pigs; Risk factors; Treatment incidence.

PubMed Disclaimer

References

    1. European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, European Food Safety Authority, European Medicines Agency ECDS/EFSA/EMA first joint report on the integrated analysis of the consumption of antimicrobial agents and occurrence of antimicrobial resistance in bacteria from human and food-producing animals. EFSA Journal. 2015;13(1):4006.
    1. Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office FSVO: 2013 ARCH-Vet Gesamtbericht: Antibiotika-Vertriebsstatistik und Resistenzüberwachung bei Nutztieren in der Schweiz. http://www.blv.admin.ch/dokumentation/04506/04518/index.html?lang=de (2014). Accessed 18 May 2015.
    1. Carmo LP, Schüpbach G, Müntener C, Alban L, Nielsen LR, Magouras I. Quantification of antimicrobial use in Swiss pigs: comparison with other Swiss livestock species and with Danish pigs. Porto, Portugal: Proceedings of SafePork 2015 Conference; 2015. p. 135.
    1. OIE World Animal Health Information Database: WAHID Interface. http://www.oie.int/wahis_2/public/wahid.php/Countryinformation/Animalsit.... Accessed 12 May 2015.
    1. Grave K, Torren-Edo J, Mackay D. Comparison of the sales of veterinary antibacterial agents between 10 European countries. J Antimicrob Chemother. 2010;65:2037–2040. doi: 10.1093/jac/dkq247. - DOI - PubMed