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Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms

In the Swiss pig sector, the usage of antimicrobials has been recorded, evaluated and systematically reduced on a voluntary basis since 2015. This monitoring has been carried out using various methods thereby enabling continuous national scrutiny as well as international comparisons. To gain a bette...

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Autores principales: Echtermann, Thomas, Muentener, Cedric, Sidler, Xaver, Kuemmerlen, Dolf
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33385014
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.566529
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author Echtermann, Thomas
Muentener, Cedric
Sidler, Xaver
Kuemmerlen, Dolf
author_facet Echtermann, Thomas
Muentener, Cedric
Sidler, Xaver
Kuemmerlen, Dolf
author_sort Echtermann, Thomas
collection PubMed
description In the Swiss pig sector, the usage of antimicrobials has been recorded, evaluated and systematically reduced on a voluntary basis since 2015. This monitoring has been carried out using various methods thereby enabling continuous national scrutiny as well as international comparisons. To gain a better understanding of the dynamics of the antimicrobial usage on Swiss farms, consumption data of farrow-to-finish farms were analyzed for (i) the within-herd relationships among different age categories and (ii) the influence of the herd size. The data were collected on 71 farms for the year 2017, encompassing the amount of active ingredients and number of defined daily doses Switzerland (nDDDch) in total, and stratified for the different age categories of piglets, weaners, fattening pigs, and sows. The differences in nDDDch per animal among the age categories were determined by a Wilcoxon test and subsequent post-hoc analysis according to Bonferroni. The within-herd relationship among the individual age categories as well as the influence of the herd size on nDDDch per animal measured as kept sows were analyzed by simple linear regression. The evaluation of the treatment days showed that 50% of the nDDDch were used in piglets, 44% for weaners, and 3% each for fattening pigs and sows. Compared to the other age categories, the examination of the number of nDDDch per animal showed a significantly higher number for sows, whereas for fattening pigs the number was significantly lower (P < 0.01). The farm-based analysis using linear regression showed a relationship between antimicrobial usage in sows and piglets (P < 0.001; adj. R(2) = 0.19). Similarly, a significant relationship between larger herd size and increased antimicrobial usage was observed (P = 0.02; adj. R(2) = 0.06). The present study provides an insight into the antimicrobial treatment dynamics of farrow-to-finish farms. In particular, the age categories piglets and sows—with their higher number of treatment days in total or per animal—are of interest regarding the potential reduction in antimicrobial usage. Likewise, larger farms with higher management requirements were found to be of particular importance for the reduction of antimicrobial usage. Monitoring programs should therefore evaluate different age categories separately to identify problems for individual farms.
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spelling pubmed-77698712020-12-30 Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms Echtermann, Thomas Muentener, Cedric Sidler, Xaver Kuemmerlen, Dolf Front Vet Sci Veterinary Science In the Swiss pig sector, the usage of antimicrobials has been recorded, evaluated and systematically reduced on a voluntary basis since 2015. This monitoring has been carried out using various methods thereby enabling continuous national scrutiny as well as international comparisons. To gain a better understanding of the dynamics of the antimicrobial usage on Swiss farms, consumption data of farrow-to-finish farms were analyzed for (i) the within-herd relationships among different age categories and (ii) the influence of the herd size. The data were collected on 71 farms for the year 2017, encompassing the amount of active ingredients and number of defined daily doses Switzerland (nDDDch) in total, and stratified for the different age categories of piglets, weaners, fattening pigs, and sows. The differences in nDDDch per animal among the age categories were determined by a Wilcoxon test and subsequent post-hoc analysis according to Bonferroni. The within-herd relationship among the individual age categories as well as the influence of the herd size on nDDDch per animal measured as kept sows were analyzed by simple linear regression. The evaluation of the treatment days showed that 50% of the nDDDch were used in piglets, 44% for weaners, and 3% each for fattening pigs and sows. Compared to the other age categories, the examination of the number of nDDDch per animal showed a significantly higher number for sows, whereas for fattening pigs the number was significantly lower (P < 0.01). The farm-based analysis using linear regression showed a relationship between antimicrobial usage in sows and piglets (P < 0.001; adj. R(2) = 0.19). Similarly, a significant relationship between larger herd size and increased antimicrobial usage was observed (P = 0.02; adj. R(2) = 0.06). The present study provides an insight into the antimicrobial treatment dynamics of farrow-to-finish farms. In particular, the age categories piglets and sows—with their higher number of treatment days in total or per animal—are of interest regarding the potential reduction in antimicrobial usage. Likewise, larger farms with higher management requirements were found to be of particular importance for the reduction of antimicrobial usage. Monitoring programs should therefore evaluate different age categories separately to identify problems for individual farms. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-12-15 /pmc/articles/PMC7769871/ /pubmed/33385014 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.566529 Text en Copyright © 2020 Echtermann, Muentener, Sidler and Kuemmerlen. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Veterinary Science
Echtermann, Thomas
Muentener, Cedric
Sidler, Xaver
Kuemmerlen, Dolf
Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms
title Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms
title_full Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms
title_fullStr Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms
title_full_unstemmed Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms
title_short Antimicrobial Usage Among Different Age Categories and Herd Sizes in Swiss Farrow-to-Finish Farms
title_sort antimicrobial usage among different age categories and herd sizes in swiss farrow-to-finish farms
topic Veterinary Science
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7769871/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33385014
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fvets.2020.566529
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