Pattern of antimicrobial usage in livestock animals in south-western Nigeria: The need for alternative plans

Abstract

Resistance to antibiotics has continued to increase, placing future animal and human disease management in real danger. The developing countries characterised by widespread indiscriminate antibiotic use and in which ‘third-generation’ antibiotics are not readily available or affordable are the worst affected. A 3-year (2010–2012) retrospective survey of antibiotic usage in livestock production in three selected states of south-western Nigeria was conducted. Data obtained from eight purposively selected licensed veterinary pharmaceutical sales establishments in the area, based on keeping detailed sales records for the study period, were analysed using Stata Version 12. Results showed that tetracyclines (33.6%), fluoroquinolones (26.5%) and beta-lactams/aminoglycosides (20.4%) constituted the majority of the antibiotics used over the 3 years. The differences in the quantities of antibiotic types used within each antimicrobial class were statistically significant for tetracyclines (F = 59.87; p < 0.0001) and fluoroquinolones (F = 43.97; p < 0.0001) but not for beta-lactams/aminoglycosides (F = 3.21; p = 0.148). Furthermore, antibiotic consumption increased by 40.4% between 2010 and 2012. Although statistically insignificant (F = 0.277; p = 0.762), the increasing trend across the years was at rates of 23.5% between 2010 and 2011 and 13.8% between 2011 and 2012. In addition, the findings show a significantly higher consumption rate (t = 15.21; df = 5; p < 0.0001) during the rainy (52.5%) than the dry (47.5%) seasons. The current increasing trend in antibiotic usage holds a serious danger for the future and therefore calls for alternative plans to safeguard future livestock production, food security and human health. This becomes more imperative considering emerging resistance against tetracyclines and fluoroquinolones, the foremost remedies for livestock diseases in most developing countries.

Antimicrobial Resistance in Food Animals and the Environment in Nigeria: A Review

“…We found that several patterns of multidrug resistance were reported in the different studies reviewed and confirmed high levels of resistance to various antimicrobials and common chemical agents [76,77,78,79]. mostly used in Nigeria for prophylactic and therapeutic purposes in animals, as well as for the control and management of multiple bacterial pathogens encountered in veterinary and human medical environments [76].…”

“…All reference drugs tested in the ARS are commonly used in human and food animals in Nigeria [79]. Very high levels of drug residue in goats’ milk (100%) is of concern.…”

Antibiotic resistance in Escherichia coli in husbandry animals: the African perspective

“…Even though in many African countries it is illegal for any person who is not a registered veterinarian to administer antibiotics, there are no strict control measures, and often farmers purchase and administer a drug without veterinary prescription and supervision (Adesokan et al . ; Mainda et al . ).…”

“…The data of different surveys conducted in Nigeria (Adesokan et al . ), Zambia (Mainda et al . ) and South Africa (Eager et al .…”

Drug Resistance in Bacteria, Fungi, Malaria, and Cancer

“…The consumption patterns of antibiotics among humans and its use in agriculture, especially in animal husbandry, have been found globally to correlate with the development of AMR (Oduyebo et al 2008;Goossens 2009;Meyer et al 2013;Adesokan et al 2015;Velickovic-Radovanovic et al 2015;Dyar et al 2016). Resistant strains of bacteria have been isolated from food animals, plant source and dairy products in different parts of the world (Brooks et al 2006; (Kariuki et al 2005), and the estimated incidence of community-acquired non-typhi Salmonella was 166/100,000 people per year for children <5 years (Berkley et al 2005a).…”