Approaches for quantifying antimicrobial consumption per animal species based on national sales data: a Swiss example, 2006 to 2013

Antimicrobial use in animals is known to contribute to the global burden of antimicrobial resistance. Therefore, it is critical to monitor antimicrobial sales for livestock and pets. Despite the availability of veterinary antimicrobial sales data in most European countries, surveillance currently lacks consumption monitoring at the animal species level. In this study, alternative methods were investigated for stratifying antimicrobial sales per species using Swiss data (2006−2013). Three approaches were considered: (i) Equal Distribution (ED) allocated antimicrobial sales evenly across all species each product was licensed for; (ii) Biomass Distribution (BMD) stratified antimicrobial consumption, weighting the representativeness of each species' total biomass; and (iii) Longitudinal Study Extrapolation (LSE) assigned antimicrobial sales per species based on a field study describing prescription patterns in Switzerland. LSE is expected to provide the best estimates because it relies on field data. Given the Swiss example, BMD appears to be a reliable method when prescription data are not available, whereas ED seems to underestimate consumption in species with larger populations and higher treatment intensity. These methods represent a valuable tool for improving the monitoring systems of veterinary antimicrobial consumption across Europe.