Abstract
Within the dairy industry, most antimicrobials are used for dry-cow therapy or mastitis treatment. To reduce antimicrobial usage in dairy cows, increasing awareness and behaviour change is necessary. As veterinarians are known to be influenced by their peers, peer study groups as a continuous education might contribute to this. Therefore, the objective of this study was to analyse written records of veterinary peer study group meetings to identify factors associated with antimicrobial prescribing decisions, and to analyse veterinarians’ attitude towards the benefits of this continuous education method. Twenty-three participating Swiss cattle practitioners were divided into three groups. Each group met every two to five months, together with a facilitator and an expert on the topic to be discussed. Written records from every meeting were taken and analysed qualitatively to identify factors influencing veterinarians’ decisions on antimicrobial prescribing and mastitis therapy. In addition, focus group discussions were conducted after the last meeting, to assess the veterinarians' learning achievements gained during the peer study group meetings. Extrinsic factors such as external pressure, competition, farmer, individual animal, farm and diagnostics as well as intrinsic factors such as own experience/attitude, knowledge and change of mindset during career could be shown to influence veterinarians’ decisions on antimicrobial prescribing. In the focus group discussions, the veterinarians stated that they gained new knowledge, received new stimuli, exchanged with their peers and felt supported in their relationship to their farmers. Since the identified factors are partly interrelated, it is not sufficient to change a single factor to achieve a change in the antimicrobial prescription behaviour of veterinarians. Veterinary peer study groups could contribute to the intention to change, because veterinarians experienced multiple benefits from this method of continuous education. In order to quantify this, the prescription data of the veterinarians are analysed in a next step.
Highlights
Antimicrobial usage (AMU) in food producing animals is known to contribute to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance [1,2,3]
Questions on the benefit of the study: 1. To what extent has this veterinary peer study groups (VPSGs) helped you with the topic of diagnostics? 2
To what extent has this VPSG helped you with the topic of therapy? 3
Summary
Antimicrobial usage (AMU) in food producing animals is known to contribute to the emergence of antimicrobial resistance [1,2,3]. In Switzerland, the National Strategy on Antibiotic Resistance (StAR) was launched in 2015 [7], and the Veterinary Medicinal Products Ordinance was changed in April 2016 to aim for an evidence-based use of antimicrobials (AMs) and restrict antimicrobial drug dispensing [8]. Veterinarians may no longer leave stockpiles (or stores) of AMs intended for the prophylactic treatment of farm animals or "highest priority critically important antimicrobials" (HPCIAs) on farms. They are only allowed to dispense quantities of HPCIAs sufficient to treat those animals they have examined [8]
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