Comparison of two methods for collecting antimicrobial usage in large dairy farms in Ohio and California

Abstract

Quantification of on-farm antimicrobial use (AMU) is critical to correlate with patterns of antimicrobial resistance, surveil­lance programs and formulate interventions to optimize its use. Prior studies have used the empty drug container (EDC) method to quantify AMU; however, the method is labor-intensive and time-consuming. Therefore, this study aimed to compare it against farm treatment records (FTR) as a reliable method to collect on-farm AMU. We hypothesized a low level of agreement in on-farm treatment incidence (TI) obtained between these 2 different collection methods.