Abstract
BackgroundAntimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem and reducing AM use is critical in limiting its severity. The underlying causes of antimicrobial use at pig farm level must be understood to select effective reduction measures. We previously showed that antimicrobial use on Swedish pig farms is comparatively low but varies between farms, although few farms are high users. In the present survey of a convenience sample of 60 farrow-to-finish herds in Sweden, we investigated farmers’ attitudes to antimicrobials and the influence of information provided by veterinarians about antimicrobial resistance. Farm characteristics were also recorded. We had previously quantified antimicrobial use for different age categories of pigs during one year, as well as external and internal biosecurity. Risk factors based on hypothetical causal associations between these and calculated treatment incidence (TI) for the different age categories were assessed here in a linear regression model.ResultsThere were no significant associations between biosecurity and TI for any pig age category. Increasing farmer age was associated with higher TI for suckling piglets and fatteners. For suckling piglets, the age group with the highest frequency of treatment, TI was also significantly associated with farmer and education of the staff, where female farmers, and university educated staff was associated with a higher TI. Larger farms were associated with a higher TI in fatteners.ConclusionsIn the investigated Swedish pig farms, factors that influenced antimicrobial usage were more related to characteristics of the individual farmer and his/her staff than to biosecurity level, other management factors or farmers’ attitudes to antimicrobials.
Highlights
Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem and reducing AM use is critical in limiting its severity
Within the European research project MINAPIG, we recently showed that AM use in Swedish pig herds mainly consists of individual treatments and that most herds apply AM prudently, with
The aim of the present study was to investigate the farm, or farmer-related, factors influencing AM use on Swedish farrow-to finish pig farms, and how biosecurity level, farmers’ attitudes to AM and the information provided by the herd veterinarian influence AM use under Swedish conditions
Summary
Antimicrobial resistance is an increasing problem and reducing AM use is critical in limiting its severity. We previously showed that antimicrobial use on Swedish pig farms is comparatively low but varies between farms, few farms are high users. Antimicrobial (AM) use in animal production in Sweden is among the lowest in Europe [1]. This is explained partly by absence of diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) together with a long tradition of implementing preventative measures against livestock diseases [2] and a ban on the use of AM as growth promoters since 1986, which decreased. The presence of infectious diseases in an area has an impact on the health status of pigs, but various biosecurity measures can be applied to prevent pathogens entering or spreading within a herd, thereby improving animal health [6,7,8,9]. Improvements in biosecurity could be useful to reduce the need for AM in pig herds
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