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. 2023 Sep 9;13(18):2869.
doi: 10.3390/ani13182869.

Examining the Veterinary Electronic Antimicrobial Prescriptions for Dogs and Cats in the Campania Region, Italy: Corrective Strategies Are Imperative

Valentina Foglia Manzillo  1 , Maria Francesca Peruzy  1 , Manuela Gizzarelli  1 , Berardino Izzo  2 , Paolo Sarnelli  2 , Antonio Carrella  2 , Giuseppina Vinciguerra  2 , Claudia Chirollo  2 , Nour El Houda Ben Fayala  1 , Ines Balestrino  1 , Gaetano Oliva  1
Affiliations

Examining the Veterinary Electronic Antimicrobial Prescriptions for Dogs and Cats in the Campania Region, Italy: Corrective Strategies Are Imperative

Valentina Foglia Manzillo et al. Animals (Basel). .

Abstract

Companion animals are increasingly being recognised as important contributors to the spread of antimicrobial-resistant bacteria. The present work aimed to measure the antimicrobial drug prescribing in dogs and cats in the Campania Region, Italy by analysing the Veterinary Electronic Prescriptions (VEPs) between 2019 and 2020. The medical records associated with antimicrobial drug prescriptions were collected according to the drug administration (systemic or topical) and the rationale for the treatment chosen. In the period under investigation, 166,879 drugs were prescribed of which 129,116 (73.4%) were antimicrobial. A total of 83,965 (65%) antibiotics were prescribed to dogs, 40,477 (31.4%) to cats, and 4674 (3.6%) to other companion animals. In dogs, 90.5% of VEPs prescribed for systemic treatment included an antimicrobial Critically Important or Highly Important or Important for human medicine (WHO, 2018). The most widely prescribed class was fluoroquinolones. The antimicrobials prescribed were mainly metronidazole-spiramycin (29.7%), amoxicillin-clavulanic (19.6%), enrofloxacin and cephalexin in dogs (16.5%) and enrofloxacin (22.6%) and amoxicillin-clavulanic acid (21.4%) in cats. Based on the results, the widespread use of broad-spectrum antimicrobials and the use of molecules for which limitations should be observed according to the EMA guidelines has emerged.

Keywords: antimicrobial resistance; antimicrobials; companion animals; veterinary electronic prescription.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Compounds prescribed for systemic therapies in dogs and cats grouped according to the pharmacological class.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Percentage of antibiotics prescribed to dogs and cats grouped according to the categorisation of antibiotics in the European Union published by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) as B (category B, “Restrict”), C (category C, “Caution”) and D (category D, “Prudence”).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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