Abstract
Monitoring the use of antibacterial agents in food‐producing animals is crucial in order to reduce antimicrobial resistance, selection and dissemination of resistant bacterial strains, and drug residues in the animal food products. The broiler production sector is considered a great consumer of antibacterials and incriminated in the rise of antimicrobial resistance level in zoonotic bacterial pathogens such as Escherichia coli, Salmonella and Campylobacter. Following recommendations from the OIE and WHO, a survey was conducted about the use and consumption of several antibacterial agents in Moroccan broiler flocks. More than 5 million broilers were randomly surveyed at the prescriber level, that is, via the veterinary clinics involved in their health management. The results showed that 93% of the flocks received at least one antibacterial treatment of minimum 3 days duration. Enrofloxacin, colistin and trimethoprim/sulphonamides were the most used antibacterials followed by oxytetracycline, florfenicol and amoxicillin. Oxytetracycline, enrofloxacin and colistin were overdosed in most of the administration, while amoxicillin and the combination of trimethoprim/sulphonamides were under‐dosed. The total amount of antibacterial consumed in the survey was 63.48 mg/kg and the Animal Level of Exposure to Antimicrobials (ALEA) was 94.45%. The reasons for this frequent use were related mainly to the poor quality of broiler production management. Chicks and animal feed provided to producers were of variable quality. Management of rearing stock density was often poor and biosecurity inadequate, and broilers were challenged by a high prevalence of infectious diseases.
Highlights
The excessive use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals rearing has raised serious concerns about the selection and transfer of multi-resistant zoonotic foodborne pathogens of bacterial origin to human populations (Wegener 2003)
The purpose of this study is to report the quantification and patterns of use of antimicrobials in the Moroccan broiler sector based on the results of a survey conducted at the prescribers’ level, that is, the private veterinarians involved in the health management of broiler production
We selected 20 veterinary clinics in the main geographical areas of poultry production and randomly chose records for at least 250 000 broilers raised from different flocks to investigate antimicrobial use
Summary
The excessive use of antimicrobials in food-producing animals rearing has raised serious concerns about the selection and transfer of multi-resistant zoonotic foodborne pathogens of bacterial origin to human populations (Wegener 2003). The use of drugs without respect to withdrawal periods constitutes a threat to consumers with the persistence of residues in animal products (Salama et al 2011; Darwish et al 2013). Another concern is related to the contamination of water and environment with chemical residues. In order to limit these concerns, the World Health Organisation (WHO) in collaboration with the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) recommend banning the use of antimicrobials as growth promoters and called for more controls for the therapeutic and prophylactic administration of antibacterial drugs to food animals (OIE, 2003; Collignon et al 2009; Aidara-Kane 2012; WHO, 2014).
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