Antimicrobial use on beef & sheep farms (PhD)

The Challenge

Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem in both human and veterinary medicine. Internationally, this has been identified as a key concern by the EU, FAO, OIE, G7 and G20. Antimicrobial usage is thought to be associated with selection for antibiotic resistance.

However, promoting reduction in antimicrobial usage requires benchmarking data on the usage pattern, and understanding of practices around their usage and prescription. Though total antimicrobial usage in beef and lamb production is assumed to be small compared to other production animals, there is no data benchmarking farms against similar types, quantifying usage on farms or exploring how farmers are using antimicrobials and how vets are prescribing them.

The Project

The overall aim of this project is use multiple data sources to quantify antimicrobial usage on beef cattle and sheep farms and understand farmer and vet decision making on using antimicrobials to promote responsible use of antimicrobials.

Objectives:

The objectives of the research are:

1. To use a cross-sectional study of 800 commercial beef and lamb producers with on-farm and production data to understand a) antimicrobial usage, b) types of antimicrobial used, c) ways in which they are being used (curative, metaphylactic, prophylactic), and d) practices and perceptions around their usage

2. To follow 25 intensively recording herds and flocks (including antimicrobials used and quanitity) and 25 randomly selected farms from objective 1 over a one year period to estimate the usage patterns (accounting for other species) and antimicrobial use as quantified as treatment incidence (T.I.); treatment incidence expresses how many animals per 1000 receive a daily dose of an antibiotic on a farm

3. To gather data through questionnaire and practice records from vets associated with the 50 farms described under objective 2, and understand prescribing practices of beef cattle and sheep vets

Approach:

0-3 months: Literature review and develop background understanding of the beef and lamb industries and farming systems

4- 12 months: The student will use and analyse data collected in 2017 for 800 farms for objective 1. The questionnaire will have sections on management practices (esp. around lambing, neonatal care, lameness, biosecurity, facilities, personnel etc.), flock health and farmer perception, question on antimicrobials used (e.g. what type and when) and treatment records)

9- 21 months: The student will start collating information on the 50 farms for objective 2.  Data will be collected on farm regarding antimicrobial usage and all other management and husbandry aspects. The beef and lamb producers will be provided with health product treatment forms, inventory forms for purchased health products, and monthly livestock inventory forms, to be completed over the study period

22-30 months: Analysis of data for objective 2, outcomes: treatment incidence, DDA for farm, usage patterns, prescribing patterns of vets

31-36 months: Thesis writing, and preparation of at least two papers for peer-reviewed publication

The Student

Charlotte Doidge