Antibiotic usage in 14 equine practices over a 10-year period (2012-2021).

Area of Science:

• Veterinary Pharmacology
• Antimicrobial Resistance
• Equine Health

Background:

• Monitoring antibiotic usage is crucial for combating antimicrobial resistance in veterinary medicine.
• Previous studies have described computerised record use for equine antibiotic monitoring, but a consensus on reporting metrics is lacking.
• This research addresses the need for standardized metrics in equine antimicrobial usage surveillance.

Purpose of the Study:

• To document antibiotic use in United Kingdom equine practices over a 10-year period (2012-2021).
• To utilize commercially available practice management software for data collection and analysis.
• To establish a reliable method for measuring and reporting equine antibiotic consumption.

Main Methods:

• A retrospective survey design was employed.
• Data were collected from 14 equine practices using Eclipse® practice management software.
• Antibiotic sales were reported in mg/kg and corrected using defined daily doses for animals (DDDvet) and DDD/1000 animals to account for dosage variations.

Main Results:

• Median annual antibiotic usage across 14 practices (treating up to 107,977 horses) was 54.25 mg/kg.
• Calculated usage metrics included 1.52 DDDvet/animal/year and 4.17 DDD/1000 animals.
• Median usage of highest priority critically important antimicrobials was 0.67 mg/kg, 0.12 DDDvet/animal/year, and 0.33 DDD/1000 animals.

Conclusions:

• A reliable technique for measuring equine antibiotic usage was successfully implemented.
• The defined daily dose for animals (DDDvet) metric is particularly useful in equine practice due to common use of potentiated sulphonamides.
• The presented data and methodology can form the foundation for future clinical audits to improve antimicrobial stewardship in equine practice.