Abstract
Research suggests that many sheep farmers continue to carry out traditional antibiotic use practices despite new ’good practice’ recommendations. The aim of this study was to group farmers depending on their attitudes around antibiotic use and antibiotic resistance, and determine the behaviours that are associated with the farmers in these groups. In 2017, a flock health survey was sent to British sheep farmers. K-means cluster analysis was used to identify groups of farmers with similar attitudes towards antibiotic use and resistance. A multivariable logistic regression model was built to determine the associations between farmers’ past behaviours and their antibiotic attitude group. There were 461 responses. Two groups of farmers were identified based on their antibiotic attitudes. Cluster 1 were defined as the "discordant" group who had positive views of using antibiotics prophylactically and negative views of reducing antibiotic use. Cluster 2 were defined as the "concordant" group who were positive about reducing antibiotic use and had negative views about using antibiotics prophylactically. Using antibiotics in all lambs (OR = 2.689, CI = 1.571, 4.603), using antibiotics in all ewes (OR = 3.388, CI = 1.318, 8.706), always trimming diseased feet over the past three years (OR = 2.487, CI = 1.459, 4.238), not using a computer to record information over the past three years (OR = 1.996, CI = 1.179, 3.381), not changing worming practices over the past three years (OR = 1.879, CI = 1.144, 3.087), and farmers’ perceptions that their sheep flock did not make a financial loss in the past three years (OR = 2.088, CI = 1.079, 4.040) were significantly associated with belonging to the discordant group. Talking to their veterinarian about antibiotic use or the frequency of veterinary visits were not associated with antibiotic attitude group. These results suggest that farmers who had attitudes relating to antibiotic use that did not align with current recommendations carried out more traditional practices, which were strengthened by their positive perceptions of profitability.
Highlights
In light of the global antibiotic resistance crisis, measures are being taken to ensure the prudent use of antibiotics, with a particular political interest in reducing avoidable use in agriculture [1].There are over 70,000 breeding ewe holdings in the UK making up around 40% of the total livestock biomass in the UK [2,3]
Many sheep farms are part of farm assurance schemes which means that they must adhere to additional requirements such as an annual flock health review, where their antibiotic use data is reviewed by their veterinarian [7]
Farmers who had antibiotic attitudes that were discordant with current antimicrobial use recommendations carried out more traditional practices, which was strengthened by their positive perceptions of their profitability
Summary
In light of the global antibiotic resistance crisis, measures are being taken to ensure the prudent use of antibiotics, with a particular political interest in reducing avoidable use in agriculture [1].There are over 70,000 breeding ewe holdings in the UK making up around 40% of the total livestock biomass in the UK [2,3]. The sheep sector is thought to be a low use sector based on limited data available [4], sheep production plays a significant role in the overall agricultural antibiotic use figures for the UK. The latest figures from the Veterinary Medicines Directorate indicated that sale of antibiotic for use across all food producing species in the UK was 31.0mg/kg in 2019 [5]. Quantification of antibiotic use in the sheep sector is challenging as sheep producers often have additional enterprises such as beef production, which makes it difficult to distinguish what species a drug has been used in. Many sheep farms are part of farm assurance schemes which means that they must adhere to additional requirements such as an annual flock health review, where their antibiotic use data is reviewed by their veterinarian [7]. A target has been set to capture antibiotic use data from 10% of UK sheep flocks by 2024 [4]
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