Antimicrobial stewardship hindered by inadequate biosecurity and biosafety practices, and inappropriate antibiotics usage in poultry farms of Nepal-A pilot study

Abstract

Nepal's poultry industry has experienced remarkable growth in the last decade, but farm biosafety and biosecurity measures are often overlooked by farmers. As a result, farms often suffer from sporadic and regular outbreaks of many diseases, impacting production and creating public health challenges. Poor management practices, including overuse of antibiotics for prophylaxis and therapeutics, can enhance the spread of poultry diseases by propagating antimicrobial resistance (AMR) that is threatening poultry and human health. We assessed biosafety, biosecurity risks and AMR stewardship in sixteen poultry farms located in four districts: Ramechhap, Nuwakot, Sindhupalchowk, and Kavre. Risk assessment and AMR stewardship evaluation questionnaires were administered to formulate biosafety and biosecurity compliance matrix (BBCM). Risk assessment checklist assessed facility operations, personnel and standard operating procedures, water supply, cleaning and maintenance, rodent/pest control and record keeping. Oral and cloacal samples from the poultry were collected, pooled, and screened for eight poultry pathogens using Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) tests. Based on BBCM, we identified the highest BBCM score of 67% obtained by Sindhupalchowk farm 4 and the lowest of 12% by Kavre farm 3. Most of the farms (61.6%) followed general poultry farming practices, only half had clean and well-maintained farms. Lowest scores were obtained for personnel safety standard (42.4%) and rodent control (3.1%). At least one of the screened pathogens were detected in all farms. Mycoplasma gallisepticum was the most common pathogen detected in all but three farms, followed by Mycoplasma synoviae. More than half of the farmers considered AMR a threat, over 26% of them used antibiotics as a preventive measure and 81% did not consider withdrawal period for antibiotics prior to processing of their meat products. Additionally, antibiotics classified as "Watch" and "Restrict" by the WHO were frequently used by the farmers to treat bacterial infections in their farms.

Fig 1. Selected poultry farms in the districts (Kavre, Sindhupalchowk, Ramechhap and Nuwakot) surrounding Kathmandu valley.

The top map shows location of the districts in Nepal and the bottom map shows their location in respect with Kathmandu District (shown just for reference, not a sampling site). The map was generated using QGIS software, Version 3.30.0 [23]. The base map of Nepal administrative shape files was obtained from Open Data Nepal (http://opendatanepal.com).

Fig 2. Graphical representation of BBCM scores received by all 16 farms for various biosafety & biosecurity parameters.

Scores (percentage) received by all farms assessed in this study using BBCM score. Numbers in parenthesis in the legend refers to total number of activities assessed within each criterion.

Fig 3. Various types of antibiotics used (in %) in the surveyed poultry farms.